Divided We Stand
by Corianin
Summary: The void had closed, leaving the Doctor and Rose on opposite sides of eternity. But trouble is brewing. Will they be able to find a way to face it together?
1. Chapter 1

She died that day, and nothing had been the same for her since.

Shifting to straighten legs that had been in one position too long, she shoved her hair away from her reddened eyes and leaned back on her hands. She thought she'd be done with crying by now but sitting here, where she'd last seen him, she'd felt the tears coming, relentless as the waves lapping greedily at the shore. Relentless, and just as cold. She thought she'd known pain, heartache, but the fates had taken it upon themselves to prove to her just how wrong her assumptions had been. Silly Human. Stupid ape. To think you would find happiness. The unspoken words of the cosmos flung themselves with mocking fury at her as she sat on the desolate stretch of sand.

There's a difference now, a small part of her mind whispered. I've seen so much, done so much. This isn't a patch on the frozen seas of Women Wept. Not even close to the splendour of the tri-hued moons of Santillax. In fact, this beach was completely unremarkable in every aspect, when compared with places she'd been to. Every aspect but one. They'd parted here. Sealed apart by the closing of a rift, separated for all eternity. She'd told him she loved him. And though he'd not been able to answer before the rift closed forever, she knew. They'd both known words were never necessary. But that last contact between them, that brief moment that couldn't even be physicalit had been on this beach. And to Rose, that made this the most beautiful place she would ever see.

Closing her eyes once more, feeling the chill breeze bring tiny raindrops to spatter on her skin, she thought of her Oncoming Storm, now lost to her forever. And the sky wept with her.

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You'd think time would cut a Time Lord a break, he thought as he moodily fiddled with the Tardis controls. But no, instead I have an unwanted (and noisy) white-draped woman standing in my home and shouting at me, when the only woman I want to be with me is trapped on the other side of the void.. Fantastic. At least when Rose yelled at me, it was usually for something I did, he thought with a rueful mental chuckle.

Being the supremely intelligent being that he was, it was quite easy for him to simultaneously talk to the nagging woman that had randomly appeared on his ship how had that HAPPENED? arrange the Tardis controls, and entertain the bittersweet thought that Rose would be a beautiful bride, smiling and happy, hair arranged with precious gems that paled by comparison to the woman they adorned, decked out in the finest Gallifreyan finery...this line of thought was sadly and thankfully interrupted when his "guest" flung open the doors and stared blankly at the celestial view spread before her. Her astonishment reminded him of how very much he'd enjoyed provoking that reaction from Rose whenever he could.

Shutting the doors, he listened with half an ear as the seemingly never silent female rampaged her way around the control room. However, it was when she picked up a very familiar jacket that he nearly lost his tenuous grip on the emotions he was trying to bury in the spirit of self-preservation.

How could he answer her questions? How could he explain to a total stranger what Rose had meant to him, to his life, even to the Tardis? Instead he just snatched the jacket from her hands it still smelled like her; perfume and shampoo and Rose and answered as best he could, giving what voice was possible to questions that brought grief to the very forefront of his mind. Sweet mother of chaos, how was he to stop the pain? How could he forget her?


	2. Chapter 2

She had a desk now, an office of her own, a title. Staring out the window, thankful that the closed door to the room shut out the sounds of the Christmas party raging in the Torchwood lounge, she let her mind wander. So much had happened, so many things, and yet it felt as though nothing had changed. Assistant Director of Interplanetary Research and Development. Such a grandiose title for a shop girl who had once been part of something bigger than she ever dreamed existed. A title and a position earned by the things he'd taught her, things she'd learned at his side. And she couldn't even share it with him.

How long? Rose thought back to the beach. A day, a minute, an eon...time no longer held any significance to her. She'd transcended time again and again and again. She didn't even keep a clock in her office. She never wore a watch. Many of her coworkers seemed puzzled by the lack of adornments both in her office and on her person. No pictures rested on her desk, no framed prints on the walls. Aside from the necessary furniture, her office was barren, lifeless. And Rose herself? She paid as little thought to what she wore as she did to her surroundings. Well, there was one thing.

Still watching out the window, the glittering lights below with their holiday exuberance seeming to taunt her, she unconsciously fingered the chain hanging around her neck. She hadn't taken it off since she'd been stranded here. Not that the chain had any significance, really, but rather it was what hung from it that she turned to for comfort. She clasped the Tardis key in her hand, not noticing the single tear that would a damp path over her porcelain skin. She recalled the feeling the key gave off when the Tardis was near, the soundless humming that increased the closer it got to the ship. Rose knew that it would never hum again. The key was dead without the Tardis, just as she was dead without it's master.

From the doorway, Jackie gazed with sadness at her daughter. Rose hadn't even heard the door open, and Jackie got to see the unguarded, hidden side of the girl that she had usually packed away in the presence of others. She knew her child was hurting, and she knew that the part that had made Rose Rose was gone. Only one thing left to do. She turned and waddled as quickly as a very pregnant woman could waddle, heading back down the hallway to the crowds below. She had to talk to Pete. She'd lost Rose once, and she couldn't bear doing it again, even if it meant sending her away.

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Watching the snowflakes fall, watching Donna's surprise, reminded him of the times he'd done the same thing to delight Rose. After so long not alone, he could almost dread entering the Tardis by himself. So he invited Donna along. Maybe the silence could be bearable then. Maybe he could block the sounds of the laughter he would only be hearing in his own memories. But she declined, and though he thought he should feel something, perhaps been sad or insulted, deep within himself he knew it was best. The future might see him escorting someone else through the wonders of his life, but for now, if he couldn't have the one person he wanted, needed, then silence was better.

As he set the controls, Donna's admonition to "find someone" rang in his ears. He'd found someone, the only someone he'd felt so much for. He could never replace her. And he wasn't about to try. Blocking sorrow with a well-honed ability, he set out to save another world. Maybe by saving them he might salvage a piece of himself.


	3. Chapter 3

They'd insisted she take a vacation. From work, from home, from them. Her reluctance was part worry for her mum, since Jackie was due any day, and part fear of her own mind. She'd been doing okay at keeping her mind in the present by focusing on work and family. To ask her no, demand of her to leave her distractions was tantamount to destroying the little comfort zone she'd created for herself over the past six months. She could hold her own with Pete, and Mickey she could just bully. Her mum, on the other hand...

"You're goin', Rose, an' that's that." Jackie Tyler on a typical day was an argumentative force to be reckoned with. Jackie Tyler, days from labor for the first time in almost two decades, worried about her daughter, and brimming with determination to help whether it was wanted or not Rose realized she didn't stand a spaceship's chance in a supernova.

"But Mum, the baby..." Her mother cut her off with the ease of long practice.

"Rose, you get yourself out of here and go someplace to relax or I swear I'll stay pregnant for another year just to make it hard on you!" That made Rose chuckle, which in turn fueled Jackie's already blazing temper. "You just see if I don't! I've had enough of your mopin' about and hidin' in Torchwood. You need to get a grip, and since you're not doin' it on your own, it's my job to send you somewhere so you can get on with it!"

Somewhere in the middle of this classically typical Tyler women discussion, Pete and Mickey had slipped out of the room, and most likely were out of the house and headed to the pub to watch the game in peace, leaving Rose no moral support in this. Gee, thanks, she thought. You're both such great mates. And she realized she would never win this fight, so she decided to surrender Tyler style.

"Okay, I get that I'm in the way and you don't want me here now. I'm guessing my vacation has already been reported at Torchwood. Do I even get to pick my own destination, or was that decided too?" The acid in her tone wasn't entirely fake, as she felt like everyone was conspiring against her. Normally that tone would throw her Mum off track a bit, but this time Jackie barely flinched.

"Go where you want, Rose. Just don't come back until you're a whole person again." With that, Jackie heaved her bulk out of the chair. "If your dad asks, I'm in the loo. Forgot how much time you spend in there when you're carrying."

Rose recognized a dismissal when she heard one. She left her half-empty cup on the table and headed to her room to grab the duffel bag she'd never unpacked the spare she'd always had ready just in case she'd lost hers on a distant moon or something. And, still burning with betrayal and bitterness, she left. There was only one place she could go, would go. But whether she would come back whole, as Jackie wished, or shatter completely had yet to be seen.

Hearing the door click shut, Jackie sat down on the closed toilet seat and cried.

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"...you kissed me." Martha's drolly amused tone rankled, though he refused to show it. Leave it to a human to imply more meaning than needed to a pointless action. Not that she wasn't pretty, beautiful even. She just wasn't Rose. The fact that in kissing her he'd saved an entire constituent of hospital staff and patients from death by either plasmavore or suffocation (neither of which would have been pleasant) didn't seem to make as much of an impression as he'd thought it would have. And he hadn't even put anything into the kiss, no thought, no effort. Sighing silently, he set about trying to live solely in the present for now an unusual thing for a Time Lord, true, but if the choice was between losing his mind through grief or blocking the pain and existing for now, he'd better take sanity.

Unbidden, a last protest railed through his soul. Just because I have two hearts doesn't mean I can stand having them both broken, his mind cried out. I need to be whole, complete! But the loss of his home, coupled with the loss of she who had created a new home just by being there, had splintered his very core, and he knew that he may never be whole again.

Turning his attention back to Martha, he chose sanity. For now.


	4. Chapter 4

Bastian laughed as his baby sister toddled around trying to catch him. He thought about how his mates at school hated having to spend time with their siblings, but he'd never minded. In fact, Ellie was the light of his life - not that the nine year old would have used those words. Since she'd come into the world a scant two years previous, he'd met the "So, what do you think of your sister?" question with a carefully nonchalant "Eh, she's okay, I s'pose." In reality, though, no child ever had a more doting or attentive big brother. Her curiosity and eagerness to learn thrilled him; her giggle made him laugh along with her. Besides, for all intents and purposes, it was just the two of them.

As Ellie crouched in the grass trying to pick up a small green caterpillar, laughing with glee when it tickled her, Bastian swore to himself once more that he would allow no one to ever hurt her. He thought back to the years before, when he'd still been an only child, when Mum and Da were both still with him. Then Ellie had come along and his Mum had died - he hadn't understood then, but he knew now that she'd been sicker than she should have been while she was pregnant. Didn't stop him from hurting when he thought of her, but he understood now.

Since then, though, his Da had become someone else. No more riding bikes together, spending time...no, his father rarely even acknowledged Bastian except in the most necessary of circumstances. And Ellie? Bastian reflected sadly how much his father seemed intent on ignoring the bright little girl. Maybe that lent more determination to the boy, a bigger reason to be there for his baby sister, since he was truly all she had. Being nine, however, even as precocious and mature a nine-year-old he was, didn't lend itself to advanced psychological musings. He loved Ellie; he would take care of her. The why never mattered.

"Look, Bastan!" He rolled over and watched her watch the caterpillar climbing her arm, eliciting squeals of joy from the ginger-haired girl. "'e likes me!"

"S'pose he does, Ellie-girl." They grinned at each other, and she poked at the tiny green crawlie.

"Can I keep 'im? I'mma name 'im Harry."

"Don't think so, love. He's a wild critter. He belongs out in the air and grass and growing things. Besides..." Bastian smiled, knowing he was about to have Ellie's undivided attention. "...he's got a secret."

"A secret? Tell me!" She sounded so imperiously demanding that he laughed out loud.

"But if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret now, would it, girlie?" If anything her face became more determined, and he realized she was copying the look he himself sometimes wore when trying to convince someone to see his side of things.

"Please? Please, Bastan? I won't tell anyone, I promise!"

He pretended to consider for a moment, watching the green critter start the trek back down her arm.

"Okay, Ellie-bellie. I'll tell you. If you let him go, let him live his life, he'll eat and eat -"

"What's 'e eat?" she broke in.

"Oh, leaves, grass - growing green things."

"That's 'cause 'e's green, ain't it?"

"Don't say ain't, love, it's not a real word. But yeah, he eats green things. And he'll eat and eat until one day -"

"'e explodes?" Explode was her favorite word this week, since she'd overheard a telly broadcast about a chemical fire in a shop down the street.

"No, he doesn't explode." Bastian lowered his voice conspiratorially, causing his sister to have to be quiet and lean close to hear him. "Once he's nice and fat, he makes himself a -"...how to explain a cocoon to a two-year-old?... "a little bag to sleep in. And he sleeps for a while, and when he wakes up..."

"What? What, Bastan? What when 'e wakes up?" She was hanging on his every word like his mates did when he'd sit at lunch and tell them stories he made up. It was a flattering experience.

"Well, he stretches a bit, and then he comes out of the bag...and spreads his wings and flies away." He thought idly that the explanation had to be the simplest discussion of metamorphosis he'd ever had. Ellie regarded him skeptically.

"'e ain't got -" A level stare from her brother made her revise her words. "'e doesn't got wings!"

"Not yet, Ellie. He's still a baby. But when he's sleeping, his wings grow in so he can wake up as a pretty butterfly."

"'e's just a baby now?" Bastian nodded. "Where's 'is mummy? Where's 'is da?"

"They became butterflies already."

"So 'e's all alone? Like us?"

"We're not alone, Ellie-girl. We have Da." Her expression, so much older than her age, made him feel like a thoughtless oaf, and he cringed inwardly.

"You have Da. I have..." Her face scrunched up and for a heart stopping moment he thought she was going to cry. But then her smile came out like the sun after a cold, lonely night. "I have you!" she finished with a triumphant grin, placing the caterpillar somewhat gently on the grass. "Now 'e can go sleep in a bag and wake up a flutterbye!" She watched as the little crawlie disappeared into the grass, then toddled over to lay her head beside her brother's on the ground.

"You'll take care of me, won't you Bastan?"

"Forever, Ellie. Forever and ever."

Side by side, they watched the afternoon wind herd flocks of fluffy clouds across the pasture of the sky.

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Being able to show Torchwood credentials certainly made some things easier, mused Rose as she pulled the rental car into the gravelly area beside the small beach house. Most of the cabins wouldn't be rented this time of year, what with the storms rolling in off the seas. But thanks to her position within the company, she found it relatively easy to rent the little place. There was no house actually on the beach at Darlig Ulv Stranden, but this one was fine, a mere ten minute jog to the beach - her beach, she thought. Their beach. The only thing she felt they still shared that was tangible.

This close, she could feel the pull of memories, the restless stirring of discontent and loneliness she'd buried all these months. It scared her, but at the same time she welcomed the pain, allowed it to dispel the shroud of apathy she'd cloaked herself in. She wanted to run, to slip out of her work attire and into her hoodie and jeans, and let her trainer-shod feet carry her to the end of somewhere, anywhere, nowhere. Putting the almost overwhelming desire on hold, she grabbed her duffel and walked up the wooden steps to the front door. Time enough later. Once she got herself settled. Once she could trust herself not to run until time forgot her.

There wasn't a whole lot of space, but the house was cozy. Besides, she thought, it wasn't as though she'd brought a whole lot of stuff with her. And it definitely wasn't like she'd be spending an enormous amount of time inside. Ten minutes after arriving, she was lacing her trainers and heading for the door. The salty smell from the sea was carried on a chill breeze from the coast, heralding the storm-dark clouds that were rolling in off the horizon. She decided to walk to the beach, partly to mentally unwind from months behind a desk, and partially to stem her own eagerness. Now that she was finally here, for an indeterminate amount of time, she didn't want to rush anything. She'd come to find herself, to decipher who Rose Tyler was in the utter absence of his presence.

By the time she'd reached the lonely stretch of beach graven on her soul, the sky above was as dark and roiling as the heart within. Fat raindrops began to pepper the sand, but so lost was she inside her own mind that she scarcely registered the rain. For a long long time she simply stood staring out to sea, watching for a dream, waiting for what she knew would never come. The storm passed, leaving the stars to climb the night-dark sky like faeries in a forest, glittering and shining with their own brilliance, a brilliance felt keenly by the lost young woman on the beach below. Home was supposedly where the heart was, so she'd always heard. Her home was with the glittering stars and the wonders therein. Her home was with the Doctor.

The moon shone benevolently on the lonely child of the universe as it glided through the sky above.


	5. Chapter 5

Why hadn't he ever brought Rose to see the Bard? She would have loved Shakespeare in person. Meeting famous dead people had turned into one of her favorite interdimensional, intergalactic pastimes. Not that Martha's reactions weren't ego-boosting in their own way. A moments thought likened the difference to the varied satisfaction of being able to do magic tricks, and the ability to perform magic itself. Rose was the magic: true, warm, meaningful, and a bit on the unbelievable side. Together they'd been so much more than the sum of their parts. Without her, he was a corner performer with a big bag of impressive tricks.

It wasn't fair, though, holding Rose like a shield in front of Martha. His latest companion was a gem in her own right, but it was too soon. He hadn't reconstructed his soul - was still too prone to random emotions, and didn't want to send the wrong signals. Oh well. She'd be back home soon enough. One trip, as a way of saying thanks. And then, back to just himself and the Tardis. The way he needed it to be.

Of course, he reflected a bit later when everything got all mucked up, nothing ever went the way he hoped. Rose...

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Well, the hard patch was over. Then again, mused Jackie, not like the next years would be any easier. Still, tired and sore, she wouldn't have traded the new bundle in her arms for any amount of peace. It had been so long, so very long, since she'd had a baby. It wasn't as though she hadn't wanted another one, far from it. She had always wanted a big family. And Rose had certainly asked enough times for a baby brother or sister. There just hadn't been anyone else since Pete. Oh, not that she hadn't dallied a bit. It was just...well, no one had ever loved her like he had. She couldn't dream of having someone else's child.

Then again, this wasn't the Pete she'd married. And she wasn't the Jackie he'd wed, either. But all sadness and mourning and long years aside - she felt they'd both been meant for this. Following that logic, she'd been meant to be a young, widowed single mum. Rose had been meant to be fatherless. And the Doctor had been fated to show up and turn their lives into a tangle of enormous proportions. She closed her eyes and leaned back, thinking of Rose. Her baby. It had been just the two of them for so long. Through Jackie's flings and Rose's boyfriends, no one had ever been able to split that bond. And no one ever would.

She'd known Rose was in love before Rose even knew. She was a mum - it was in the job description. And as much as she disliked the situation, she really didn't dislike the Doctor. Either of his selves. Truth be told, she was actually rather fond of the frustrating man - well, alien, but still. Not that she'd ever admit it. He was too full of himself as it was, what with being able to swan off to whenever and wherever at any time he wanted. Someone had to play the bad guy...erm, gal. And she was protective of her little girl. So even though she knew he would die to protect Rose - had, in fact, died to protect her - she was a mum, and it was her job to keep him careful.

But since Pete had rescued Rose from the Void, her girl hadn't been the same at all. Morose, depressed, she remained apart from the world except when she buried herself in it as a distraction. It was a manner Jackie knew very well indeed. It was a woman, lost and mourning, trying to find meaning in a world that was suddenly empty. Jackie knew the absent gazes, the abject grief. The strain of never letting it show when others were watching. When Pete died, she'd thrown herself into raising Rose, painting a picture of a wonderful, loving father as much for herself as for her little girl. Jackie gave Rose the father she deserved, if only through bedtime stories and recollections.

The baby shifted in her arms, bringing her out of her past and into the glorious present. He was beautiful, she mused. Wispy dark hair that would likely lighten over the years, and baby blue eyes that were showing the slightest hazel flecks even at this young age, probably to turn fully brown-green as was common to both hers and Pete's sides of the family. She wished Rose were here to share with, but it was better this way. Let Rose take time to heal, as much as she could. Jackie was no fool. Time by herself could easily be as harmful to Rose as it could be helpful, but the chance had to be taken. If her daughter could find meaning enough to keep her going, to perhaps bring back even a trace of the happy, loving person she'd once been, then it was worth the risk.

"She'll be okay, in time." Jackie raised her eyes to smile at her husband as he walked softly into the room.

"I know. I worry is all." He nodded and sat in the chair beside the bed, and as she watched him stroke his son's cheek, Jackie thanked the powers that be that she'd had this chance, this second shot at the happiness she'd thought gone forever. Then she silently beseeched said powers. "Please, please let Rose find happiness too. Even if it takes her away from me forever. I could live without her if I new she was happy."

Pete watched his wife as she fed their son, knowing her thoughts were both here with them, and far away as well. He knew she worried for Rose. Everyone worried for her. If the cosmos had any justice at all, he thought, things would fall together for Rose and the Doctor to find each other again.

In silence they sat, hands entwined, hearts beating in time. And night slowly embraced their corner of the world.


	6. Chapter 6

"Da?" He'd waited until Ellie was upstairs before venturing into the livingroom. As usual, he found his father sitting on the couch, staring at some program on the telly. Not watching the program, mind, just staring at it. Today was looking like one of his Da's bad days. They were all bad since Mum died, he thought, but some were worse than others. Bastian had made up his mind, though. He missed having his Da around to enjoy things with him, and Ellie...well, he swore to take care of her forever, but he was honest enough to know he'd never take the place of the parent she never met and the one who was only parent enough to tend to the most basic needs. He raised his voice a little.

"Da?" His fathers eyes, sorrow-filled and bleak, shifted up to meet him. He cleared his throat and sat down at the end of the couch, close enough for conversation but not close enough to crowd if he wasn't welcome at the moment.

"Yes, Bastian?" World-weary and life sore, his father's voice was barely audible. But at least he had answered. Time to play his hand, the boy thought.

"You know how you always said I could talk to you about anything?" The man nodded slowly, and Bastian took a deep breath. All or nothing.

"I was wondering...do you...I mean, it seems...do you blame Ellie for mum dying?"

The silence was deafening. It was as though all the quiet and stillness that had ever existed had gathered in the two feet of space separating father and son. And it stretched on and on, a warm taffy made of discomfort. An eternity passed in the next few minutes, an eternity in which Bastian wanted to run far away. He knew he'd asked a question that threw his father's mind into a pit of agony, but he needed to know, for himself as well as Ellie. It was honestly a complete shock to hear his father speak.

"Oh, Bastian...I'm so sorry...so very sorry..." With that, he broke down in tears. Bastian moved closer and put one hand on his father's arm, feeling the tension radiate through him. And without warning, quicker than either could have imagined, a small shape darted to the floor in front of the couch and hugged her father's legs.

"It's okay, Da. Cryin' 'elps sometimes." The solemn way she spoke had him lifting his head, looking at his baby girl - really seeing her - for the first time in her life. And Bastian was amazed to see him smile at Ellie through the tears still creeping down his face.

"Ellie...oh, god, Ellie. I'm so sorry, baby. I've been rotten to you two, and you deserve so much better." In a bounce Ellie was on her feet and holding her arms out to be picked up - something she'd never done to him before. Bastian wasn't even aware of the moisture on his own cheeks as his father picked his sister up and held her close. One arm came out and enveloped the boy in the warm embrace, and the reunited trio sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments. But sitting isn't a pastime that holds that much thrill for a two-year-old, and presently Ellie squirmed around until she could look up at her father.

"Da? Tell me about my mummy?"

He sighed and collected his thoughts, and Bastian could tell by the absence of distance that his father wasn't going to shut them out, so he simply settled in and waited for the conversation to start.

"Well, little love, her name was Rose, and she loved you very much." He chuckled. "So much, in fact, that she named you before you were ever born..."

Evening came and paved the way for night as the three talked, forming a bond previously missing that would last forever. To Bastian, forever sounded just about right.

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Day followed night, and the first touches of sunlight on her face had Rose looking around blearily, realizing she'd actually crashed out on the beach. In all honesty, she wasn't too surprised. She'd known her body and mind were going to force her to sleep sometime. Stretching and yawning, she stood and began to walk back to the beach cottage. As she shook what sand she could from her hair she could just imagine Jackie scolding her for sleeping on a beach in the rain. She could hear her mum swearing that Rose was lucky not to catch something from the damp and chill.

Stepping around a few rain-slick rocks, Rose chuckled at the memory of the conversation she and the Doctor once had about humans and their silly belief that one could catch a cold by being cold. Missing him, she knew, was something branded on her very soul. But she had to get on with her life, pain or no pain. He'd asked her to have a fantastic life, and while she didn't think it was even possible at the moment, she couldn't insult all he'd admired and taught her about human resilience by refusing to live at all.

She never puzzled where her new decisions had sprung from. She only knew that the next time she saw him, she wanted to be worthy of him. She wanted to be an equal, not a sidekick. And while she knew he never thought of her as such, a part of her finally realized it was time to stop thinking of herself as just a tag-along and start trying to see at least some of what he had seen in her, what he always saw in her. By the time she'd reached the house, a light mist had come in off the sea, blanketing the bay in chill dampness and rewetting the sand caked to her skin and clothes. First order of business, she though, was a shower. A nice hot shower to clear the cobwebs from her brain. It was just what the doctor ordered. She chuckled sadly. It was just what the Doctor would have ordered had he been here.

Trying to keep most of the sand and crumblies in something like a pile, she stripped and stepped into a shower as hot as she could stand. Steam quickly filled the bathroom as she closed her eyes and tilted her face into the gently massaging stream, feeling the sand and tears and bone weariness drain slowly off of and out of her.. She scrubbed her fingers through her tangles hair, feeling the grittiness run away under the punishing water. After about an age or two she began to feel remotely human again, the combination of sweet scented shower gel and warmth relaxing her, soothing her, comforti-aaAAH!!!

She gripped her head as she fell to her knees. A sharp spike of pain drove itself mercilessly through her temples. Crying out against the agony, she barely heard the words her mind spoke to her.

"The worlds collide! Too fast! Too fast!"

All went black, and the slowly cooling water sluiced over the unconscious form slumped in the bottom of the tub.


	7. Chapter 7

He really did wish he'd had a chance to talk to Shakespeare without having to save the world again, but c'est la vie, as the human French would say...had said...would say at some point. His guest was currently asleep, leaving him precious hours to enjoy the quiet. Well, perhaps enjoy wasn't the proper word, he thought as he aimlessly wandered the halls. Looking up from his musings, he realized he'd been standing in front of a door for some time. And since he knew how the Tardis thought, there was only one door it could be. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he turned the handle and stepped into Rose's room.

She was very fond of pink, he knew, but the sheer variety and volume of shades and items would never cease to amuse him. His eyes flickered over the collection of oddities and pretty things and miscellania strewn about the room. Picking up a small Dvornost crystal on its tetradidium chain, he smiled as he recalled the day in the tent bazaar on Io; she had fallen in love with the color-shifting prism on the unusual chain, and in an unguarded moment brought on by watching her happy he'd mentioned how beautifully it brought out her eyes, causing her to resemble her name as a soft blush tinged her cheeks. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he held the crystal in his hands. Dvornostian crystal jewellery had the unusual but fascinating quality of attuning itself to the pulse of the wearer - a quality that made them useless to Time Lords, as the attempt to handle the dual hearts made them simply explode with the strain. Humans, however, were easy to mimic, and once attuned they followed that pulse and no other, stopping only when the wearer did.

Sitting there holding Rose's crystal, he could feel the strong, steady beating of her heart. He hadn't felt this close to her since Bad Wolf Bay. His hand clenched around the gem and the Oncoming Storm, Destroyer of Worlds, the last of the Time Lords, curled up in the fluffy pink bed in the room where his Rose once rested, falling asleep to the rhythm of her heart.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The sky was blue. The grass was green. The sun was yellow. And his ice cream cone was strawberry and chocolate with little rainbow sprinkles. He smiled up at his dad who grinned back before they turned their attention to Ellie who, in true toddler fashion, seemed to be wearing more of her vanilla ice cream than ingesting it. At that moment, Bastian decided he was the happiest he'd been in years.

After the previous night's long awaited - and very necessary - conversation, the three of them had slept in late. When Bastian finally poked his head out from under the covers, the smell of hotcakes and bacon crept into his nostrils. How long had it been since breakfast had been anything but cold cereal? He'd fairly run down the stairs, stopping short at the kitchen doorway to grin at the sight before him. His dad was cooking, wearing - of all things - an apron Mum had gotten him one year for Christmas that said "Kiss me, I'm American." A plate sat on the table, piled high with hotcakes and bacon, and best of all was Ellie in her booster chair, stuffing her mouth with food and mumbling around it to babble about flutterbyes and the caterpillar named Harry they'd met yesterday morning.

After a breakfast served with a side of affection and topped off with full cups of laughter and warmth, the day got better as his dad told them to go get dressed 'cause they were going to the park. Twenty minutes later they were heading out the door, Ellie riding on the shoulders of the man who had finally realized what a treasure she was, while a blissfully happy Bastian held onto his hand. They were a family again.

He saw his dad waving at former acquaintances on the way to the park, and by the time they set foot on the grassy borders, Bastian had decided that the day couldn't possibly get much better. And then his dad had said the magic words.

"Hey, anyone wanna grab some ice cream?"

Both kids were off like a shot, their dad finally with them, and the world was a happy happy place. And now, sitting under a tree, finishing off his cone, Bastian thought back to the nervousness he'd felt approaching his dad the night before, and realized that there were some risks worth taking.

"Ellie, darlin', you're looking more like an ice cream cone yourself than a little girl," their dad chuckled as he wiped vanilla from her cheeks. Sharing a conspiratorial grin with his son, he smiled mischievously.

"Only one thing to do..." And from the pocket of the leather jacket he was wearing, Bastian saw him take three things that made him suddenly understand why his dad had insisted they sit near a water fountain. Laying on the grass were three brand-new squirt guns. Father and son shared wicked grins and, each grabbing for a weapon, the battle was on.

Long into twilight came the joyful sounds of a family together at last, the loving sounds stirred and passed along by the evening breeze. 


	8. Chapter 8

Pete Looked at Mickey, seeing the younger man's shock.

"You mean to tell me our world is gonna crash with others?"

"That's exactly what I mean." Pete sighed. "Apparently our dimensional travel damaged more than we thought. As close as we can tell, the Void is rippling now, ironing itself out. I don't understand it all." Mickey looked thoughtful.

"If only the Doctor was here. He'd know what was going on."

"But he's not." The older man sighed again. "At least Rose is away, though Jackie's worried sick about her. But she'd be trying to find a way to save the world."

Mickey wondered if that was such a bad thing. She'd changed, his Rose. Well, not even his Rose anymore. She belonged heart and soul to the Doctor, had since they first met. And if Mickey hadn't known the Doctor returned the devotion he'd have set about to regenerate the Gallifreyan at least once. Maybe more. No, the Rose he'd loved wasn't there anymore. No more giggly childishness. No more late nights at the pub. Rose had grown up - and grown out of him.

He supposed he should be hurt. He had been, at first, when she swanned off with the mysterious man. But he'd seen things now, too. Been galaxy hopping, traveled through time and space. And while it didn't hold the irresistible pull it always had for Rose - she who'd always bored him with talk of wanting something more out of life - he knew it had pulled her. The Doctor had pulled her. And he understood now, finally, why she'd seemed so lost here. A sudden crazy idea pulled him back to the present.

"Oi! Pete, those worlds that are colliding - which ones are they?" Pete consulted his notes.

"Well, guess we're lucky. Apparently we only disturbed two other worlds besides ours, as near as the techs can tell."

"Which two? Is the Doctor's one of them?"

"Um...they think so...why?" Mickey watched as the other man's face went slack in astonishment. Pete grabbed across the desk, slammed his hand down on the phone's intercom button, and began barking orders.

"Get me the printouts of everything known about the Void disturbance. I want it on my desk twenty minutes ago. Also, bring up that tech from Research - the one who first saw the problem - Lacey Jaskar? Yeah, Jaskar. And call my wife and tell her not to go anywhere, I'm on my way home." Letting go of the button, he turned back to Mickey.

"I've got to go tell Jackie. Could you chat with this tech and find out as much as she knows about this, and call me if you find out anything too important to wait for a few hours." With a flurry of commotion, Mickey suddenly felt things were going to work out.

"I got it, Pete. You go tend to Jackie. I'll chat a bit with Lacey." Pete paused long enough to raise an eyebrow at the younger man.

"Lacey, eh?" He grinned. "Well, make sure you get work done first. I'll see you later!" And with that, he was out the door, leaving Mickey with a pile of notes and an empty room. He sighed. Time to find out how this was going to play out. Worlds colliding and everything - seemed that if Rose couldn't go find excitement, it followed her home like a lost puppy.

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The beating water on her aching head pounded out a percussive rhythm of pain through her slowly waking brain. For the first time since she'd looked into the heart of the Vortex, she remembered everything. She heard Bad Wolf. The statement had made no sense, but she remembered. And she could still feel it, like a tingle of memory, a bundle of sensation in the back of her mind. She didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she reached out and...touched...the bundle with a thin thread of thought. Instantly she felt a jolt of warm comfort shoot through her veins like liquid gold.

She realized it was a lot later than she'd first assumed. Having no idea how long she'd lain in the bottom of the tub and no desire to remain under the now-freezing shower any longer, she shut off the taps and opened the shower curtain. One big fluffy towel and twenty minutes later, she was mostly dry and sitting in front of the fireplace, seeing how quickly she could get a fire going. Never having done so before, it took her a few tries, but it didn't seem long at all before Rose had a cheery blaze going.

"Good thing something's cheery," she muttered to the empty air. Casting her mind back over what Bad Wolf had said, she tried to make sense of it.

"The worlds collide!" No mistaking the panicked urgency in the voice. There was also no mistaking the lack of explanation. As Rose combed her fingers through her hair, feeling the strands begin to dry and smooth in the heat from the fire, she puzzled over what it could mean. Worlds physically colliding? What, like planets? Universes? Too many possible interpretations of the word "world." And what about the next bit? "Too fast! Too fast!" Well, that could only mean that whatever was going down would do so too quickly to stop it. She sighed and stretched out on the floor, laying full length on the towel. No use wondering and worrying when she couldn't do anything anyway.

She turned her attention to the knot of golden energy in the back of her mind. Not having any way to describe it, and no one to describe it to anyway - oh, she missed her Doctor. At least he's have a theory - she closed her eyes and tried to remember how she'd done...well, whatever it was she had done before. She found it easier to attempt if she closed her eyes. She could almost see the gold light pulsing behind the closed lids. Without thought or plan, she tried to bring it into focus, feeling it get stronger, enveloping her in its warmth. Stretching to that warmth, that feeling of belonging.

Slowly, so slowly, the glow came into some sort of focus and it took Rose's breath away when she realized what she was feeling. In the detached part of her mind still anchored to her body she felt an odd, yet familiar sensation in her chest. But in the part of her that was most fully alive, she knew this glow. With more joy than she'd ever thought to feel again, she embraced the mind within the glow. She embraced the soul of the Tardis, and the Tardis embraced the soul of the Rose, and the heart of Bad Wolf was happy.

She'd come home at last.


	9. Chapter 9

He could feel Rose's heart beating between his own. No one would know he'd slept on Rose's bed holding the crystal like a much-beloved stuffed animal. And no one would know he'd awoken from a dream of the Tardis bathed in gold shimmers, feeling more at peace than he had since...since the beach, actually. And most importantly, no one but he would ever need to know that the Dvornostian crystal rested, hanging from its chain round his neck, underneath his shirt so he could feel some part of Rose against his skin once more.

He'd had a bit of a scare, dropping from car to car in the smoggy underbelly of New New York when the chain had broken. He'd nearly plunged to his next regeneration to catch it, hanging by one hand from a floating vehicle, nearly sobbing in relief that he'd managed to catch the crystal with his fingertips. Holding his breath against the infernal soup that passed for air here, he'd taken a few seconds with the sonic screwdriver to rework the chain's molecular structure - it's never gonna break again, he thought proudly - before placing it around his neck and beneath his shirt once more. Thus armored against bone-crushing loneliness, he continued his downward trek to the bottom level of cars, the fast lane. As usual, though, nothing went as planned. He really thought he should not even be surprised anymore.

It wasn't until later, walking back through the pharmacy district, that he stopped to contemplate the events of the day. He'd been so wrapped up in fixing what was wrong that he hadn't given thought to...well, to anything but the problem at hand. He sat down on a chair in front of his stubbornly curious guest and let his mind wander while he regaled her with the ins and outs of Gallifrey. Here was another glaring difference - when Martha asked about his home, it was because she was bursting with curiosity. With Rose, the curious nature had been equally tempered with the sincere desire to keep his home alive, for him, within her own memories. Little things like this were building in his mind, being cataloged. And though he'd once sworn to himself not to compare companions - well, there was no one to compare to Rose. Everyone else he'd known, cared for, shared with...everyone else was a candle's flame beside the burning sun that was Rose.

Still, it was good to talk and have someone listen. He and Martha sat on their folding chairs in front of the Tardis until the sun took itself to sleep. It wasn't until she yawned that it dawned on him she was probably tired. Chivalry returning, he stood and offered her his arm to navigate the shadow-dark ground between them and the Tardis. Once inside, she headed for bed, bidding him goodnight with more warmth in her eyes than he could have returned even if he had wanted to. He knew that if he had been interested, she would have happily spent the night with him. But even if it was in him to just have casual liaisons, he knew as soon as he closed his eyes it would be tousled blonde hair and a cheeky smile behind his eyelids. And using Martha like that was more than he could stand...it was too wrong, too mean, for him to stomach, not fair to her...or him...or Rose. Especially not fair to Rose.

Instead he leaned on the Tardis console, fully intending to set the destination to return his wayward guest to her home and family. And then the Tardis pushed at his mind with an insistence he'd not felt for a long time. Opening himself to the ship, he listened to what she had to tell him. By the time she was done talking, his hearts were ready to burst with sheer unequaled joy...but his mind was cold with fear.

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The baby was sleeping when Pete got home, a fact for which Jackie was amazingly grateful. All her husband had said over the phone was that he had something important to talk to her about, and that he was on his way home, so to please make sure she was there. So instead of doing her shopping like she'd planned, she settled little Chase down for an early nap and had just fixed a cup of tea. Pete came in before she'd even had a chance to sit down, his voice carrying through the house.

"Jacks?" She called back to him much more quietly, swearing she'd slap him if he'd woken the baby. Lucky for him, he didn't.

He came in to see her in the sitting room. Without saying anything he left briefly to pour himself a cup as well before coming back and sitting on the couch beside her. Jackie knew she should be patient, wait for him to speak first. But one thing Tyler women were not known for was their patience.

"So what's so important it couldn't wait 'til after work?" Pete took a deep breath, unsure of where to begin. It had been a tacit, if unspoken, agreement in the household to not refer to the day the worlds closed off, but he had to. Another deep breath to steady himself, and he turned to his wife.

"We...Torchwood's scientists...they've found an anomaly...well, not an anomaly, more like a wave...no, not that either..." Jackie had no time for this.

"Oi! Out with it already! What's the problem?"

He decided just to toss it all out there and then answer what questions he could afterwards. Knowing Jackie, there would be questions aplenty.

"It seems that when...when the Rift closed...well, we'd done more damage to the Void and the structure of the worlds than we thought. Now the Void is - well, rippling, for lack of a better word - and our world and two others are on a bit of a collision course. No one knows exactly what will happen, whether it will be violent or barely noticeable, but we do know that we've got maybe a month before these worlds link up, and we have no idea what will happen then. We know the actual collision will occur at a single geographic location, because once they touch, the Void should slowly spring back to normal and separate them again. But we don't know how long they'll be together. Or what the repercussions will be."

He waited for the barrage of questions, accusations, and was mildly perplexed when none were forthcoming. Jackie got up to stand at the window, staring out and seeing nothing but her own thoughts. The quiet stretched on. Pete stood to be with his wife while she obviously contemplated what he'd said. It was times like this that the differences between the old Jackie and his new Jackie were so apparent. The old Jackie would have accused him of causing the problem to spite her. So used to blame was he that when she turned and spoke, it took his brain a minute to catch up with what she had actually said.

"What haven't you told me? This has something to do with Rose, doesn't it?" At his surprised and admiring look she nearly blushed - would have, in fact, had she not been so worried. He looked so pleased that she'd realized there was more not said, and his smile made her hurry on. "I mean, if it didn't affect us, I can't see why you'd tell me. And the only time you're so careful with your words is when it's got to do with Rose. So come on, mister, out with it!" He couldn't break free of her gaze, didn't want to.

"Jacks...as near as they can tell...this is because of her. Somehow." He overrode her attempts at protest. "She is somehow...Rose is holding a huge amount of energy, and the techs - meaning me as well - well, we think the ripples are rolling in reverse."

"Whaddaya mean, reverse?" Very few things upset his wife like the thought of something happening to her little girl. "Hasn't she been through enough?"

"You know how you drop a stone into a lake, and the water ripples away from the splash? Well, these are rippling towards something, and that something is Rose."

"So what's going to happen to her?"

He sighed heavily. "We don't know. We didn't expect problems of this magnitude when we learned the use of traveling between dimensions."

"Ain't that just like a group of men. Jump right in, never you mind what's gonna happen. And then - whoops, sorry, we're gonna crash three worlds together with your daughter in the center. Don't worry, though. We don't know if she'll live through it, but it should be a hoot to watch!" By this point she was close to screaming and Pete knew this was his cue to exit. While she ranted and raved he waited until her back was turned and retreated to the nursery to quiet his son - who had woken up with her shouting and was currently matching her volume for volume. Picking the boy up, he sat in the rocking chair and rocked him gently until he calmed down.

Out in the living room, Jackie's fury had spent itself, leaving her weary and worn. Collapsing in the chair nearest the window, she stared out the glass and watched the clouds gathering ominously on the horizon.

"Oh, Rose..."


	10. Chapter 10

The moonlight danced shadows across Bastian's ceiling in time with the whispering songs of the wind in the tree branches outside his open window. He liked nights like this, when the breezes kicked up a fuss and called the rain down. The rainfall calmed him, made him rest easier. Unless it was really stormy, that is. When the sky turned angry, he got a little worried. Usually during the worst of the storms, Ellie would creep into his room and curl up beside him - not for her own comfort; his sister loved storms, and the louder the better, quoth the unwritten book of one Eldianne "Ellie" Harkness - but because she knew it bothered him and she was as protective of her big brother as he was of her.

This night, though, the rain started as a murmur of contentment, eagerly and happily falling to the ground. Bastian closed his eyes and listened to the percussive pulse spattering on the roof and splashing in the pond outside. He toyed with the idea of heading downstairs and onto the back patio to sit on the porch swing and watch the rain fall, but he didn't know if his Da would let him. He decided that the worst that could happen was to be sent back to bed, so he crept downstairs and towards the porch.

The porch, however, wasn't empty. Sitting on the swing with what looked like a box of photos on his lap sat his dad. Bastian watched him pick up photo after photo out of the box, sometimes smiling, sometimes chuckling out loud. Bastian edged closer, wondering who the pictures were of, and consequently he was almost at his dad's elbow when a picture came out of the box that seemed to bring no mirth. Instead the older man just sat there, sad and lost, staring at the memory in his hand. There were four people in the picture; his dad, looking younger and very silly, had his arms wrapped around a pretty darker-skinned lady who was obviously pregnant, each regarding the other as though the sun rose and set in their eyes.

Beside his Da and the mystery woman was his mum, leaning back against the chest of a man with chocolate eyes and rather tousled hair, smiling at him with so much love it nearly hurt to see, and he wore the same expression as he stared into her eyes, his arms around her waist. Bastian was puzzled. His parents seemed to love each other so much - who were these other two people? His dad's gentle voice cut into the boy's quiet confusion, making him jump guiltily.

"What are you doing up, eh big guy?"

"I was...I wanted to come see the rain." His dad chuckled.

"Birds of a feather, we are. Pull up a patch of swing." He gestured to the unoccupied section of the glider, and after he had climbed up, Bastian knew he had to ask.

"Da?"

"Hmm?"

"Who were those other people in the picture?" And why did it make you so sad, he wanted to continue, but lacked the nerve to ask. His dad sighed.

"Well, I hadn't really thought about telling you yet, but you deserve to know. The lady with me...her name was Martha. She -" He paused. "She's your mother."

Quantum physics would have computed in the nine-year-old's brain faster than that last statement. Mother? He looked at his father with utter confusion. And rather than patronizing or talking down, his dad spoke to him as an equal - a fact that would make Bastian feel very proud in future years.

"You see, Bastian, Rose isn't your biological mum." He sighed again. "When I was younger, I met and married a wonderful amazing woman named Martha. I loved her dearly. And then you came along and we were as happy as could be. But when you were about four months old..." Here his dad got choked up and it took a moment for him to continue. A moment Bastian was more than willing to give him, as he was still factoring in the fact that the woman he'd known as Mum wasn't his mum at all. But rather than ask questions, he thought he'd let his father finish talking. Maybe it would all make sense as it went on.

"Anyway, she was very sick, and none of us knew it until it was too late. When you were still very young...she died. But before that, she and I had agreed that if her best friend was willing, she'd raise you as her own. I mean, I knew nothing about being a parent, and less than that about being a single parent. And Rose was in our lives constantly - she and Martha had been inseparable since school. So Rose moved in to help through...through Martha's last days. She was your mum, even if she wasn't your birth mother, and she loved you so very very much. Is...is this too much? I know it's a lot to absorb all at once...we probably should have told you earlier..." His father's voice trailed off and the two sat in silence for a while, only the raindrops and the wind giving voice in the night.

So his real mum's name was Martha. Not Rose. But what made "real", anyway? This Martha was a stranger he'd never met. Rose was...well, she was his mum for as long as he could remember. So really, this changed nothing, except that Ellie was his half sister, right? He decided to ask his father, since it was obvious he was waiting for some sort of verbal response. The answer he got - well, it seemed there was no shortage of strange new information this evening.

"Actually, Bastian, I'm not Ellie's father."

"What? But you...how?" Bastian knew this was about to get even more complicated. His father sighed inwardly, lost in thought.

"We'd decided it would be better for you, and in general, for us to be legally married, so when you were about Ellie's age we filled out the paperwork and made it all official. I loved her, she loved me, and even though we weren't in love with each other, not as husband and wife anyway, it was the best time of my life. She was my partner, my friend." Bastian wanted to bring up...well, they shared a bedroom...but he was too embarrassed. His father correctly interpreted the silence and the expression, however.

"Yes, we shared a bedroom, and we cared for each other, but not in that way...god, this is a weird conversation...I couldn't see myself with anyone but Martha, and Rose...well, Rose had her own heartache. So we never went that far. I don't think it would have been fair to either of us."

"But then...Ellie?" For the longest time his father stayed quiet, until Bastian thought he was going to be ignored. However, that wasn't even close to the truth.

"Rose...well, you know we worked at Torchwood, right?" Bastian nodded. "Torchwood deals with things like extraterrestrials and other worlds beyond Earth."

"Like the space trade stations and multi-planet markets?"

"Exactly. Except when Torchwood started, no one knew there was life anywhere else." Bastian found that hard to believe. Didn't they watch the telly? Where would shows like "Tori's Space Station Five," "Sirius Jones, Chardon's Last Warrior," or even "Law and Order: Intergalactic Vice Squad" come from if not space? But it was a trivial point, so he didn't interrupt.

"Anyway, Rose had been traveling with a man before we met, and they'd fallen in love with each other. The went through time and space and had the most amazing experiences. I even went on some - me and Martha. In fact, this picture was taken on our last trip together. We'd decided to stay home then until after you were born, to make things easier. Meanwhile, Rose...well, something happened and they were split up and she stopped traveling and stayed with us." Bastian felt there was more not being said, but that really wasn't important right now. "They fell out of contact, but never out of love. And a few years ago, he'd managed to come back for a couple of days. Remember when your mum went to Cairo on business? Well, it wasn't really business. She went to spend what time she could with him. But it went wrong, all wrong. There was an explosion...Rose barely survived. He didn't."

Bastian felt loss that wasn't his own, yet was stronger than anything he'd known. He understood now why his mum had been so sad when she came back. Oh, she'd tried to hide it, but it was always there. He imagined what he'd feel if anything happened to Ellie, and could envision the a portion of the pain she'd gone through. Ellie. So that meant...

"Her friend was Ellie's dad?" His father nodded. "But how did you feel? Why did you be her dad?"

"For the same reason Rose was your mum. Because we cared about each other, and wanted the best for you two. Every child deserves to have parents that care and are there and love them. And we loved both of you so much - we only wanted the best."

"Why now, Da? Why tell me now?"

"Because, Bastian, you're closest to Ellie. When I was at work today - well, we're all going on a trip, and she'll need someone to watch after her, and I think she'd prefer it be you. And you needed to know the truth about her."

"Truth about her? That she's not my sister?" His dad took a deep breath and Bastian knew whatever was coming next would dwarf everything else he'd heard tonight. And he wasn't disappointed.

"Bastian, your sister's father...well, he wasn't human."

That night, amid the pounding of the rain and the humming of the wind, a little boy named Bastian learned about how his sister was the last of an ancient, extinct race. She was Gallifreyan.

Eldianne Harkness was the last of the Time Lords.


	11. Chapter 11

Martha had never seen him like this. When she came out after a fitful night's sleep, he was in the control room, which was perfectly normal. He was stretched out full-length on his stomach, which is also perfectly normal. And he was sipping a cup of tea and apparently taking notes from a gigantic book opened in front of him, jotting things down and humming to himself. Which was very not normal. She stopped in the doorway, taking in the charmingly disarrayed hair, the glasses that just made him look more boyishly intelligent, the studious expression that was at once both happy and worried, and realized this was the closest she'd ever gotten to seeing the Doctor look truly carefree. Martha thought back to conversations she'd had with her mates about true love and finding the elusive "Mister Right". She'd scoffed then. She still didn't really believe in soulmates or love at first sight or anything like that. But, she mused, if the truth was anywhere close to what she felt now, then the Doctor was probably the closest she'd ever come to the love of her life. Shaking away the bothersome thought, she cleared her throat and grinned when he looked up at her over the rims of his glasses.

"Good morning, Mister Smith," she said cheerily, and was both surprised and pleased when his response was equally bright-sounding.

"And a good morning to you, Miss Jones!" Bright-sounding wasn't the word for it. He fairly chirped. She chuckled.

"You seem to be in an amazingly good mood this morning. Any reason?" she asked nonchalantly, though she was burning to know what caused the abrupt mood swing. He leapt smoothly to his feet and, to her confusion, leaned over and hugged the ship's control panel. After which he burst into the most animated speech she'd ever heard from him, all but bouncing back and forth through the control room as he chattered a mile a minute.

"This beautiful wonderful ship, actually! You see, I was up all night talking to her - well, it really isn't night or day in the Void, but you get the idea - and anyway, she just gave me the most wonderful news! Oh, the most awful news as well, but really, I can deal with dimensions colliding - I am a Time Lord, the last of the Time Lords - regardless of what the Face of Boe said - and it might get a little rocky, true, but...Rose is alive! And she's close! Relatively speaking, that is. And I'll get to see her again, talk to her, to tell her..." His bounciness came to an abrupt halt, and his face took on an expression that could only be described as wistful. And in that moment, she knew he would never, could never be hers, not in that way. He'd been Rose's for longer than even he knew, she'd bet. Martha finished his sentence, knowing as she did so she was forever sealing them together as "just friends," and no matter how much she knew it was right, it still sent a small pang of pain through her.

"That you love her." He looked at her, those enormous eyes filled with so much emotion, so much more than she'd ever seen from him, than she'd thought he was capable of, and she nearly wept.

"I do. I really do. No matter how hard I tried not to, tried to deny." He paused and smiled sheepishly, and Martha felt his happiness as keenly as she felt her own loss. "I was running from her for so long without realizing that without Rose, I had nowhere to run to." In his voice she heard the tremble of tears, the whispers of anger and rage, and the hope of forever. And she knew she could never be jealous of Rose for this. Rose was, quite simply, the only woman in - well, in time itself - for him. Briefly Martha wondered if she would ever be lucky enough to find a love like that. But that line of thought would get her nowhere, so she focused on other parts of his precocious babble.

"So what did you mean when you said you could talk to her? And what's this about dimensions colliding?" He suddenly turned almost somber.

"I never fully explained how Rose and I were separated, did I? She shook her head. "Well, long story as short as I can make it right now, we were saving Earth - again - in a parallel world - I'll go into parallel worlds later - and when we opened the Void between worlds to suck all the evil creatures in, Rose...we were both holding on, but the lever holding the Void open started to shift, started to close. She knew if that happened, the world would die. So she let go of her handhold and managed to latch on to the lever, forcing it back open. But she lost her grip, and I couldn't save her..." A few moments passed in silence as he mentally relived the horror of the last few minutes. Then he visibly shook himself.

"Anyway, at the last minute, her father - well, not in this world, he'd died in this world when she was a baby - he teleported in and back out, saving her by taking her to the alternate world. Then the Void slammed shut completely - well, except for one small hole I managed to find...had to destroy a sun in order to get a last message through, but it was worth it - sealing us on opposite sides of the solid Void. But now...now the Tardis thinks she can open a communication line again somehow! She won't explain exactly how, but I think with a little jiggery-pokery, it can happen!"

Martha's empathy for the couple jumped exponentially. Rose hadn't left or been left. She and the Doctor had been cruelly torn apart by the determination to save everyone else. By her determination, her willingness to sacrifice herself. Because, hearing just this little bit the Doctor felt up to relating, it was clear that Rose had known her actions could get her killed. And she'd acted anyway. Martha only had one response.

"Doctor...your Rose...she must be a remarkable woman." She could have cried at the tenderness and love infusing his suddenly far-away eyes.

"Yes, she is. One of a kind - I would know. She's the most remarkable woman I have ever met."

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The next few days passed quickly for Rose. A little experimentation had yielded the fact that she could speak, after a fashion, with the Tardis. Not conversationally, although the connection was getting stronger day by day. But she could feel and share emotions with the ship - who in turn could share back. It wasn't an exact science, and not a frequent one, but it gave her hope. The first real hope she'd known since he faded from her sight so long ago.

The other unexpected thing was the reemergence of what Rose knew as Bad Wolf. Starting as a tickle in her consciousness, the nebulous contact had quickly built in volume and reliability, until she could thought-speak to the emerging mind. Through these mental bondings Rose learned quite a bit; about herself, she found she had an uncanny aptitude for though-speech - apparently humans were usually quite hopeless in that respect, being effectively mind-deaf and -dumb, but Rose seemed to have a natural talent for it; about Bad Wolf, who wasn't really an entity at all but rather the massed consciousness of a nearly infinite number of beings. Indeed, it turned out that the Time Vortex was simply the culmination of every line of "if" woven through the fabric of endless possibility and powered by unquenchable thought. And she learned a myriad things in between. Which was why, when her family showed up on the morning of the beginning of her third week of her stay, she was surprised at neither their appearance nor the news they brought. They, however, were quite surprised at the person who had taken the place of the moody, depressed girl they'd sent on vacation.

"Rose!" Mother flew out of the vehicle to meet daughter, who was running down the steps and dashing across the sand. The two met somewhere between the car and the porch, embracing one another with no small amount of emotional outpouring. Unlike the tears shed at the end of their last conversation, however, these were filled with joy and warmth, and it made Pete and Mickey smile at each other over the top of the car. It had been hell persuading Jackie to break into Rose's "vacation", but by all appearances, it was very much worth all the trouble.

After the initial reunion, discussion turned to Jackie's now substantially thinner frame, which brought both women to join the men at the car. Without prompting, Rose reached into the car and lifted out her recently awoken little brother. Holding him close, she stood gazing at him for a long time. To everyone's amazement he cooed and burbled happily up at her - a very unusual thing, as he was usually grumpy upon first waking up. She grinned and tickled his fingers, turning to Jackie.

"Mum, he's precious! Did you name him Chase?" Jackie nodded as Rose nuzzled at the baby once more, then smiled at Pete, walking around the car towards him.

"Hey there." And to his immense shock she gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. As the older man stood somewhat dumbstruck, she grinned.

"Thank you for taking care of them. I wasn't exactly doing a bang-up job of it." She shook her head, stalling everyone's protests. "You can all stop it. I know I wasn't right when I left. But I think - I know - it's going to be better now." Pete felt he had to speak up before things got too comfortable, because the real purpose of their journey was anything but.

"Rose, we have...well, a little problem. We're here to tell you...to tell you..." Far from the curiosity they'd expected, the bewilderment, she simply smiled again.

"You came to warn me about the dimensional convergence." A pause, and she laughed. "You lot! You should see your faces! It's priceless! Sorry, guys, really, didn't mean to laugh, but you all looked so shocked!" Transferring the littlest Tyler to her other arm, she gestured to the house. "Come on, let's all go sit down and have a cuppa. I've got a lot to tell you." And with that, Rose led the bewildered trio into her temporary abode.

When everyone was settled in, Rose began to talk. Really, talk, for the first time, about everything. She started with her swanning off with the Doctor, the things they'd done, places they'd seen. To the accompaniment of their astonished sounds she explained the places, the people. She told them about seeing the Earth in its last minutes, about meeting Jack Harkness - took them through every step of her journey, until she got to the events leading up to Jackie and Mickey helping her break into the Tardis.

She told them about the Daleks. About the Doctor's delta wave attempt, and why he'd sent her home. Why she'd felt she had to go back. And then...

"So I looked into the Tardis." She paused for the first time in her narration. After a few minutes, she found the words to continue. "I don't know if I can even begin to explain what happened. It was...imagine looking at the sun, then looking away. You know that afterimage when you close your eyes? Well, it was like that, only it filled my whole body. It was like the tingle you get when your leg falls asleep. It was...it was life. And I let it in because I knew together we could save the Doctor."

"We? What we?" Jackie's curiosity overrode the desire to keep silent. Rose appeared deep in thought, finally speaking.

"I didn't know at the time. It seemed like a portion of myself. Like a split personality, only not latent, but just born. The sensations - it was all so new, so overwhelming. I know now, and I'll get to that, but then? I just knew I had to save him. He'd saved me. He would always save me. And everyone else too. That's what the Doctor did. And I loved him so much...I killed the Daleks..." She deliberately glossed over the next few moments. She now, thanks to the Wolf, recalled everything in amazing detail...the awe, the confusion, the power, the fear...too much...all culminating in the kiss that had rocked the universe. The kiss that, technically speaking, was unnecessary, as a simple touch on the hand would have sufficed. It made her smile inwardly.

"Anyway, I passed out. The Doctor managed to take the power of the Vortex out of me and into himself, to give it back to the Tardis. It would have killed me. It did cause him to regenerate. But humans aren't designed to do what I did. So even though he saved my life, I still had a residue of the Vortex within me. And that's allowing me to, somehow, communicate with the Tardis - which led me to the other mind I'd been part of, the Vortex itself. And now I know. I know so much more than I'd have ever dreamed.

"I know the Vortex isn't alive, not the way we would define it. It's more...aware. It's aware of everything. I suppose, really, it is everything. It was the Vortex that told me about the convergence."

It seemed that her storytelling had opened the floodgates, but only one question rose above the rest. Mickey's voice, more sure and confident than it had ever been when they were growing up together. We've all changed, she thought. But then it dawned on her what he'd asked.

"So if you can talk to the Tardis, does that mean you can pass a message to the Doctor?"

The atmosphere in the room changed from wonder to caution in the blink of an eye. By agreement on the drive over, they'd decided not to mention the Doctor unless Rose brought it up first. Pete looked shocked. Jackie looked murderous. But Rose just looked a little sad.

"Doesn't work quite like that. I can feel her, and she can feel me. But I can't ask questions. And she couldn't really answer. It's more emotions than thoughts." Mickey looked quite downcast. "Why do you ask?"

"I just thought, if it was possible, he might be able to tell us why the worlds are colliding with you at the center."

Rose looked stunned. Focal point? Her? That was something the Vortex hadn't seen fit to import to its human link. She sat back in her chair, head spinning.

"So I'm the focus? But why?"

"I believe I can answer that, actually."

The group spun in shock. There, in the small sitting room, hazy and near transparent but undeniably there...

"DOCTOR!"


	12. Chapter 12

~ one week earlier ~

"What the hell are you talking about? Why wasn't I told sooner?"

"Come on, Jack. If you'd been here more than once in the past month, you'd have known. And we only found out your daughter was involved yesterday. This is the first I've had a chance to talk to you." Ianto stayed firmly on the other side of the desk, not wanting to come any closer to the angry man across the barrier. Those eyes glared with the force of a thousand furies. And to all those that said rage was an inferno - well, all Ianto could think was that they'd never heard the frost in Jack Harkness' voice in that minute.

"Tell me." Two words, uttered with suck frozen command that he had no choice but to obey.

"Well, the disturbance - collision, if you will - is pulling three separate dimensions together, like reverse centrifugal force. A merge of these proportions will take a great amount of time resistant energy. And as near as we can tell, it has found your daughter as a partial source of that energy. None of us know why or how."

Jack knew. He knew, but he wasn't saying anything. He just gestured for the other man to continue.

"Well, no one knows exactly what will happen, to our world, to Ellie. There is virtually no available data on this. Nothing of this sort has ever happened to our knowledge. We did, however, pinpoint the geographic location where the physical merge will take place. It's a place in Norway, one Darlig Ulv Stranden."

"Bad Wolf Bay?" Jack suddenly became lost in thought, his mind traveling back in time to a few years previous.

Rose, lying in the bed at the hospital, doctors working frantically to save the new mother, knowing it was futile by working anyway. Jack stood there, tears in his eyes as he watched her smile wearily at the baby in her arms, the baby she'd just sacrificed herself for.

"He would have been so happy, Jack." He knelt beside her, his head on eye level with hers. She didn't seem scared and he wondered why. Why this had to happen, why she who'd lost so much already had to lose the chance to raise the child that was so amazing, the bond between and continuation of two races, the baby she'd wanted so very badly. She saw his expression and turned her attention to him.

"Take care of her, Jack? She's the last now." Rose's eyes were already losing focus as the med team failed to staunch the flow of blood pouring from her body. He could only nod.

"Love you Jack. You and Bastian...and Eldianne. Ellie. I think he'd like the name."

He could barely speak around the lump in his throat, but he managed to murmur that he loved her too. The doctor came up and motioned him aside, but Rose shushed them both.

"No secrets, doc. I know I won't be here much longer." The physician looked for confirmation to Jack, who nodded.

"Um...we've found...that is, there is something..."

"Out with it," Rose breathed.

"Yes, well, then...your daughter has two hearts. We're not sure why, or how to fix it, especially since she seems perfectly healthy, and everything is functioning normally. We'd like to run a few..." Jack didn't need to see Rose's expression to know to cut the good doctor off.

"If she's healthy then I'll be taking her home with me. Rest assured, we'll be back at the first sign of problems. Now, if you don't...I'd like...I mean, could we have some time alone, before..." He could tell the doctor wanted to push his point, but the man was well-paid by Torchwood to not ask questions, and besides, Mr and Mrs Harkness definitely deserved what time they had left together. Ushering the med team out of the room, he followed and closed the door behind him.

Rose's tired smile held gratitude and love, and a complete lack of fear. But she was rapidly losing her strength, and with a final kiss and a whispered "I love you, Ellie," she passed the baby to Jack. He held her close and leaned over to kiss Rose gently, knowing how much she had saved him, how much they'd saved each other, knowing how much they both almost wished things could have been a little different. A last smile and her eyes fluttered closed, leaving Jack with the miracle child in a chilly room. He looked at his wife for a long time and was about to call the med team back in for the final preparations when her eyes snapped open. But there was nothing of Rose in those strangely intense depths, glowing with a golden light. Nor was there anything of Rose in the voice that spoke through her lips.

"When the time comes, take the child to Darlig Ulv Stranden. You will know. Remember..." The voice that was not Rose faded, and with it she was gone forever. Stashing that last bit of not-Rose in the back of his mind to think on later, he held "his" daughter close and wept for the world that was now a darker place.

"Jack? Hello?" Ianto's voice snapped Jack out of his memories and back to the present. His mind struggled to find the question asked, captured it, replied.

"Darlig Ulv Stranden. Norwegian. Means Bad Wolf Bay. Though perhaps Bad Wolf Beach would be a closer translation. See, I did my research after..." He realized with a start that he was babbling, that the other man's gaze was resting on him with worry. He grinned, knowing the effect that grin garnered from females and males alike. It did its job flawlessly - distracting and disarming Ianto. Usually he would get a thrill from his effect on people but right now his mind was focusing on things far more important than his ego.

"I'll look into it further myself, Ianto, thank you. Meanwhile, I have to be getting home." He thought frantically for a good reason to leave before realizing he never gave reasons. So he grabbed his things, shot the other man another patented dazzling Jack Harkness grin, and disappeared out the door. For a long time Ianto just stood there, off balance and confused. Then he resigned himself to the fact that confusion was a normal state of mind when dealing with Jack, and left the room to head back to his own work.


	13. Chapter 13

Martha, knowing she would be intruding, and no one would ever accuse her of it, nonetheless stayed in the shadows. The Doctor had been a right energetic typhoon, working tirelessly all night...or what passed for night in space. His habit of speaking to himself - or to the ship, she supposed - had filled the control room with ceaseless commentary and one-sided conversation, and it amused her to relax in a chair in the corner and just listen to him being happy.

"This wire...ah-ha! - now, where's that diode..?" The Tardis must have zapped him then as he let out what certainly sounded like a curse. It was in no language she recognized, but tone of voice needed no translator. Nothing daunted, he never stopped his machinations for even a second. She had thought at one point about offering him some food or drink, but realized that hope and love fueled his body better than anything meager refreshment could achieve. Instead she sat there, quiet and unobtrusive, soaking up the happy mania of the atmosphere and watching the Doctor rush here, there, and everywhere talking to his ship.

"So the coaxial goes...over here...and then this switch...and that...and it's all hooked..."

After what seemed like hours, and probably was, he'd put the finishing touches on his creation. Turning to her, eyes shining, he grinned.

"Well, then, this is it! Now to see if it works. The Tardis says it will, but then again she's been known to be wrong..." ZAP! "Ouch! You! It's true and you know it! Now, you wonderful machine, let's power it up!" He threw a switch and turned a dial, and for the longest time nothing happened. Martha was about to make a comment when she gasped instead. In the center of the open space in the console room, a shimmery, ghostly image of a group of people faded into being.

An older couple and a younger couple sat around a table, obviously deep in conversation. The younger woman was holding a baby that Martha guessed couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. Difficult to tell, though, as the view faded in and out like a low-reception telly. She heard the doctor's breath catch and though she thought later it should have dawned on her before then, she suddenly realized who it was they were watching.

"Is that..?" she asked quietly. His wide eyed gaze, like a parched man staring at an endless sea of water, was answer enough for her. She wouldn't have needed to hear the reverently whispered "Rassilon" to know that the young woman reclining in the straight-backed chair with such apparent ease was the one he'd given his heart to.

"Audio...I need audio, need to hear..." He paused for a moment and Martha assumed he was listening to his ship's response. Her guess was confirmed a moment later.

"More power? Well, then, take it from me! Just get me SOUND!" His knees buckled suddenly and she was about to run to him when he climbed to his feet. "Not funny, you." Pause. "Yes, but I didn't say to drain me like a plasmavore after a hunger strike, now did I?" Anything else he might have said to the Tardis stopped abruptly at the first sound from the foggy image.

"...why the worlds are colliding with you in the center."

"I'm the focus? But why?" the girl protested. Martha saw the Doctor shudder, could see how the strain of somehow powering this weird connection was leeching his strength. But when he spoke, his voice was steady, wry, and full of life, and Martha nearly squealed at the sound.

"I believe I can answer that."

All heads swiveled in the direction Martha supposed he was appearing to them from. For the first time she realized the sheer amazing truth of the matter, that they were truly in different dimensions, and speaking together because of determination and love. She didn't realize she was crying when the young blonde - Rose, she knew now - passed the baby to the other woman at the table and vaulted over her chair to stand before him.

"DOCTOR!" She stopped short, tears glistening on her lashes. "Oh god...is it really you?"

"Hush, love," he murmured with a tenderness Martha had never in her life heard from anyone. She realized that right here, right now, there was no one in the world for the two of them except each other, and she felt a bit like an intruder.

"Yep, it's me. Gotta thank the Tardis - she locked onto your mind and, with a bit o' jiggery-pokery, opened this channel."

"But, are you burning another sun? How are you powering this?"

"She's drawing it mostly from me, so I have to be quick. You are the focus because you are an energy paradox. Humans cannot survive touching the Vortex. Your biology should have died instantly. But you did the impossible. You survived. And the small traces of Vortex energy that remained bonded to your cellular structure. You're a walking battery, Rose! And that is what is fueling the convergence."

"Doctor...you sound strained...you can't do this! You'll kill yourself! And I swear, if you regenerate for this, I'll wait until you're done and regenerate you again!"

Martha watched as the Doctor raised his hand to trace his fingers along skin he couldn't feel.

"I had to see you again. It's worth the strain. But I have to go before it rips me apart."

"Wait! You said I'm a battery, and I'm linked to the Tardis!" Rose closed her eyes and to the shock of everyone in both worlds, a faint golden glow suffused her body. The Doctor looked terrified.

"ROSE! NO! You can't!"

"Yes I can," came the impossibly calm reply. "If I cannot go to you, I shall bring you to me."

The Doctor moaned and Martha felt the ship shudder like never before.

"Hold on to something," the blonde said, and the Tardis' passengers barely had time to follow the instructions before the universe exploded.


	14. Chapter 14

"Why are we goin' away?"

Bastian didn't know how to answer. He'd always been honest with his sister, but somehow the phrase "Well, because you're an alien and before Mum died she told Da that when trouble started he was supposed to take you to Norway" didn't seem to be the appropriate thing to say, regardless of how true it was. He was still having trouble believing it himself, but he knew it to be true. So for the first time ever, he lied to her.

"Da's taking us on a vacation to a beach. Could you hand me those socks?" She bounced over to him, one sock in each hand, and he rolled them together and stuffed them I his bag. Her bag - a little pink one with a white cartoon kitten on it - was already filled with clothes and toys and sitting out of the way by the door. A final tug on the straps closed his bag and he shouldered it quickly. Picking up Ellie's bag as well, he motioned to her.

"Come on, Ellie-girl. Let's go put these in the car so we'll be ready to go whenever Da is. Did you use the loo?" The little imp holding his free hand nodded emphatically.

"Yep!"

"Okay, then." They hurried downstairs, Bastian waiting for her at the foot of the steps as she insisted on making her own way down. As he stood there, watching to make sure she didn't fall, a head peeked around the corner.

"All set, tiger?" Jack's body followed his head and Bastian saw that he'd packed a simple backpack as well. The boy felt a bit apprehensive - this wasn't a normal vacation, regardless of what he'd told his sister, and he hoped she wouldn't pick up on his anxiety. Jack put his hand on his son's shoulder and smiled at him, speaking in a quiet voice.

"It's all going to be okay. Your mum wouldn't have asked me to do anything that would be bad for Ellie. Or you." Seeing that conviction in his father's eyes, he relaxed a bit. Ellie bounded down the last step and tripped, falling right into her dad's arms. She giggled as he swung her up onto his shoulders, and they all laughed with her.

"Okay, everybody, out to the car! Next stop - Norway!"

Ellie fell asleep almost before they were out of the city. Bastian chuckled at her, slumped sideways in her carseat, mouth partially open, her favorite toy - a gangly stuffed mouse named Penny - clutched tightly in one hand. She was always like this. Loved going places in the car, and loved letting the rumble of the engine lull her to sleep. He turned to his dad.

"She's asleep," he chuckled. Jack grinned, switching the radio until he found the station he wanted, and turning the volume down so as not to disturb Sleeping Beauty.

"Easiest passenger in the world. Must have picked that up from her mum." Rose's tendency to sleep easily on car rides had been a source of amusement to both her husband and her son. Quiet filled the car, and Bastian let his mind wander as he stared out the window at the passing scenery.

"Da?"

"Hmm?" Jack was tapping lightly on the steering wheel in time with the song on the radio.

"Could all of this," the boy paused, "have something to do with her dreams?"

"She has dreams? That she remembers?" Jack was surprised. "Didn't think that started so young. What about? She ever tell you?"

"She said there's a man and a woman and a glowing light, and they're smiling at her. Then the ground goes all rumbly and purry -"

"Rumbly and purry?" Jack sounded amused and Bastian giggled.

"Her words, not mine. Anyway, then these ropes of clouds come out of the sky and drag them away from each other and they're sad. And she sees a big blue box and it talks to her, so she goes in and it tells her things."

"What kinds of things?"

"Dunno. She usually wakes up and doesn't remember."

"Usually? She's had this dream more than once?"

"About once a week for a couple of months now," Bastian replied, nodding. His dad was quiet for a long time, so Bastian started humming along with the song on the radio. He almost missed his dad mumbling under his breath.

"This doesn't make sense. Why is she dreaming of the Tardis?"

Bastian didn't know what to say, so he just sat there and stayed quiet. Father and son drove farther and farther from home, sitting in silence while the precious cargo slept in the back seat. And the radio sang on, uncaring.


	15. Chapter 15

"Are we alive?" the Doctor heard Martha mutter and cough from somewhere in the midst of the dust that filled the control room. She sounded okay, if shaken, so he trusted the voice.

"Yes, we are. But Rose - Rassilon, what was she THINKING?!" He managed to dig himself out of a pile of cardboard, metal pipes, papers, ropes, and feathers - feathers? - and made his way across the debris to lay an hand on the control panel. "Come on, old girl, tell me you're okay..." A small surge of power resonated under his fingertips and tired sensation equal parts pain and contentment crept into his mind. She was proud of herself for holding together long enough to get them to safety, but it had taken a lot out of her, and she wasn't a young ship anymore. The Doctor mentally praised and thanked her, leaving his hand where it was as he turned to see a very bedraggled-looking Martha, covered in what seemed to be silly string and confetti - oh, so that's where Rose's bag of New Years goodies had ended up! - staring at the ship with concern and curiosity.

"Will she be okay?" He nodded slowly.

"Eventually, yes. But even with myself and Rose helping, it was the Tardis that had to survive traveling through the Void. She nearly didn't. In fact, I could have sworn she was going to lose the fight. Rose must've somehow bumped up the power from her end, because I know that extra burst didn't come from me." He exhaled and his legs gave out, plunking him down on the floor, one hand still on the console of his beloved ship.

"Could she have done that? Rose, I mean. Bumped up the power?"

"Yesterday I would have said no, but today - she shouldn't have been able to do any of this. So I don't know."

"So...where are we?" The Doctor stood and looked at the monitor, winced when he saw how badly it was cracked.

"I don't know. No way to tell until we look outside." With that, he strode purposefully to the door, the only indication of his low amount of strength the way he seemed to take extra care with where he stepped. Martha was nervous.

"Don't just go out there! We have no idea where we are, if it's safe..." He simply looked at her and smiled.

"Rose would never put us in harm's way, Martha. Rose or the Tardis either one." And with that he slipped outside. Martha barely had time to react before he poked his head back in. His hair was drenched, and there were piles of slushy snow on his shoulders.

"Best bring a jacket. It's a mite nippy out here." And he popped back out again, leaving a shaken Martha to go search through the Tardis' wardrobe for a heavy coat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jackie paced back and forth in the small sitting area, glancing at her unconscious daughter stretched out full length on the couch. She had no idea what happened. One minute Rose had jumped up and been talking to the Doctor. The next, her voice had gone strange and then she stood there quiet for a while, until she began glowing. Brighter and brighter to gold light had burned, and then Rose had sighed and slumped to the floor, completely out. Pete and Mickey - both of whom were now seated at the table working on god only know how many cups of tea - had picked her up and put her on the couch, trying to make her comfortable. Or as comfortable as they could, since she was dead to the world.

"What the hell did she do?" Jackie asked for the millionth time. It had been nearly twelve hours so far, half a day of her baby girl's only signs of life being shallow breathing and a thready pulse. And just like all the other times, no one had an answer. Pete stood up from the table and put his arms around his distraught wife.

"She'll be okay. Whatever it was she did, it will probably take a while to recover from." She shot him a skeptical look.

"What could take this long? What was that gold glow? What is going on with Rose?"

"We won't know until she wakes up. And your pacing won't help that. Why don't you go lie down with Chase and take a nap? We'll watch her and wake you when something changes." Jackie visibly slumped, conceding defeat more easily than she had ever done. It was with a heavy heart that Pete watched her shuffle off to the bedroom.


	16. Chapter 16

When Ellie screamed, Jack slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt, he and Bastian practically jumping over the back of the seat. Bastian got there first, lifting her out of the carseat and out of the car door his dad had just flung open. He and Jack held her shaking form for minutes upon minutes, until she finally began to calm down. That was when they heard what she'd been mumbling.

"...Wolf needs help...Doctor needs help...the blue box is dying...I can help..."

Over and over she repeated the litany, regardless of how much her anxious family talked to her, tried to get her to snap out of it. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open and Bastian nearly shouted at the way they seemed to glow. She focused on nothing and everything, her voice far more adult than it should have been.

"I had to pull them here or they would have been lost, and Time would have been lost. They will be here soon. We must go to the Bay."

With that, her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp. Bastian stared in terror as his little sister lay in his arms like a ginger rag doll. He called to her, touched her cheek, as his father checked her pulse and looked under her eyelids. Neither of them noticed the mist building, nor really registered the drops of rain falling from a cloudless sky. They didn't realize that the drops became flurries of snow, falling like cold confetti all around them. They never saw the fog build, or the faint shimmery glow of the sun as it became two, then three in the western sky. In fact, the first thing besides Ellie that filtered in was the drop in temperature, only noticed because Bastian wondered why his teeth were suddenly chattering.

"Da?" His tremulous voice pulled Jack out of his concentration and they both stared as the world around them began to change. The road seemed to duplicate itself, shifting a bit before running off at two different angles. Trees wavered and appeared in bare fields. The large pond off to the side of the road faded, becoming transparent. Quite frankly, it was all terrifying. The entire land around them was becoming...something else. So it wasn't any wonder that they both jumped about a mile in the air at the sound of the voice that came out of the fog behind them.

"Anything we can do to help?"

Jack spun around and felt the bottom fall out of his world. He stared in shock at the man before him.

"Doctor?!" The man grinned.

"I seem to be getting that reaction a lot today." Whatever Jack was going to reply died a painful death, gasping for air as all his focus homed in on the woman standing, in a gigantic woolen coat, slightly to the side of the Doctor.

"Martha?" Tears filled his eyes.

"That's me." She looked from Jack to the Doctor and back again before continuing.

"How do you know me? I don't think we've met."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mickey watched the crashing waves, the rain and snow and fog, and took it all in stride. Odd atmospheric things he could deal with. The ocean being restless could be a normal thing. The sun, however...

Perhaps he should say "the suns." Plural. In a sky he was used to seeing only one glowing orb in, it was disconcerting to say the least, seeing the ghostly glow of two other suns, each slightly off center from the original. In fact, if he didn't know what he was really seeing, he'd probably do what countless thousands of other people were doing and dismiss it as a trick of the light. But he knew. The worlds were converging, and the result...well, spectral suns were the least disturbing.

He thought back to a time when life was simple. Him and Rose, sitting in a pub eating chips, their only concerns being school or work or who was doing what with whom this week. But now? Now Rose could glow and speak telepathically to the universe, and had managed to fall in love with a 900-year-old alien. And himself? He'd been galaxy hopping. Fought beings from other planets. Met his double in an alternate dimension, joined his cause...and then continued his fight when he died. Jackie had married her dead husband's double and they had a baby boy now. Compared to all of this, the sight of three suns where there should be one, an ever-morphing landscape that rumbled, and weather that seemed to be suffering from schizophrenia shouldn't bother him in the least. Too bad it did.

The door opened and Pete came out. Both men stood at the railing for a time, neither saying anything. Eventually, though, the silence broke.

"Jacks is asleep finally."

"Good. She was just going to worry herself sick. And Rose?

"No change," replied the older man. "Still sleeping...or whatever." The one thing that no one knew was whether she would ever awaken. But no one was saying that out loud.

"So now we wait, eh Pete?"

"Looks that way." Silence again, but more comfortable this time. Even the strangest things are more easily borne when one wasn't alone. Things like ever-changing landscapes and unexpectedly comatose young women. Pete looked around for a long while, taking in the surroundings before coming to the conclusion Mickey already had. The sea was much easier to watch.

"It's started, hasn't it? The convergence." Pete nodded at Mickey, who sighed.

"Let's hope it brings the Doctor. I have a bad feeling about this, and it's getting worse."

"Me too, Mick, me too."


	17. Chapter 17

It only took the Doctor a few seconds to grasp the situation.

"Pardon me Martha, I need to speak to Jack here, old friends and all, bit of a catch-up, why don't you go talk to the little ones?" And with that he drug an astonished and hurt Jack off the side of the road, over a snowdrift, and onto a bare patch of grass a few yards away. Forestalling the other man's comments and protests, he launched into speaking.

"Listen, I've got to make this quick. If you're here, I'm assuming you're with Torchwood in this world as well, which means you know about the convergence. Understanding that, you need to understand that Martha and I are not from your world, but one of the other ones that is currently merging with yours. Which means that your Martha is still dead, as is - I'm assuming - your Rose. I'm correct, aren't I? 'Bout six years apart, and you probably lost Martha first judging by your son." Jack looked totally stunned and the Doctor grinned. "That boy is a clear mix of both of you, but your daughter - well, she is a ginger little Rose, no mistake. Anyway, bottom line, I'm not your Doctor - he's dead too, correct? - and this is not your Martha., and - Rassilon, I've had this conversation before, it never turns out well, anyway, let's get back to Martha and your two before they all start worrying more than they already are. And we need to get everyone into the car and out of this bizarre weather. Oh, since you're heading to Darlig Ulv Stranden as well, mind if we hitch a ride? The Tardis got pretty banged up Void jumping, you see."

Jack could only nod as the Doctor headed back to the car. He tried to understand that this Martha never knew him, had never married him, had never mothered the boy standing there staring at her as though she'd risen from the dead...oh SHIT! He grabbed the Doctor's arm.

"Bastian, he...she died when he was still little, but he's seen pictures. He might actually think she's his mum!" The Doctor stopped short, turning to look at Jack.

"Oh bugger."

"You know what, let me tell him. He knows about the situation." Jack had a sudden flash of an idea. "But could I get you to take a look at Ellie, keep an eye on her? She just had a bit of a weird incident and then passed out, so she's not likely to be a handful or anything." The Doctor looked like a cross between a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car, and a sky diver whose chute didn't open - a blankly frightened expression Jack wanted desperately to laugh at but knew it would be a bad idea. Finally, the other man nodded.

"Make it quick," was all he said as he headed towards the car, seemingly oblivious to the wind that had picked up where the rainy flurries left off. When he got to the woman and children by the car, he leaned down to say something to Bastian and the boy came trotting over.

"Yes, Da?"

"Bastian, remember how I told you about the different worlds that are colliding?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well, you see, the Doctor and Martha..."

"They're not from this world, I know." Jack regarded his son with surprise and pride.

"Really? Well, this makes it so much easier. I was just a bit worried you might..." Bastian shook his head.

"Give me a little credit for listening, okay Da? I was just asking her what it was like to travel in space and time." Jack laughed out loud and ruffled his son's hair.

"Well, then, let's get back to them. Oh, and one more thing - don't say anything about Ellie being a Time Lord. He doesn't need to know that yet."

In perfect accord, father and son rejoined the group and got in the car, discussing seating arrangements for the drive to the Bay.

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Somewhere in the darkness between realities, a hunger awoke. The pulling of the fabric of spacetime nursed it, nourished it, until - ravenous - it extended outwards, tasting, testing, discovering weakness, sensing the feast beyond.

It had no name. It had no existence - yet it was. Boundless and dark, famished, it leaned and stretched and crept towards the pulsing golden lights that were slowly melding into a three-pronged beacon of power. It was time to feed.

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About midnight, everything calmed down. Jackie sat outside, the baby dozing on her lap. There had been no change in Rose's condition by the time she'd woken up. She hoped that, whatever it was Rose had done, it brought the Doctor to them. She had no doubt that was what Rose had intended to do. The men were skeptical, but Jackie remembered vividly how she's have rearranged heaven and earth to bring Pete back if she could. She never underestimated the power of a woman in love.

The shifting landscape didn't bother her as much as it did Pete and Mickey, and she knew they assumed it was because they didn't think she understood fully what was going on. They were wrong. It was, instead, the realization that regardless of what happened, even if they all died, if the whole of space and time and the universe and everything was destroyed, it wouldn't matter. She had gotten the second chance that so many wished for and never received. To ask for it to be forever was greedy. She simply accepted what she had and treasured it like there may not be a tomorrow - because for all she knew, there may not. So she could look on the transformation of the surroundings, not with the fear or worry that Mickey and Pete felt, but with a sense of awe. Once more, she was getting to do and see things no one else ever would. It was a bit humbling.

"Jacks!" Pete's voice came loud and clear from within the house and she knew that tone of urgency could mean only one thing. Climbing to her feet, she clutched Chase and darted inside to hug her newly-awakened girl.

"Rose, oh Rose, you're awake! Had us worried sick you did! One minute up and chatting with the Doctor, the next all glowing, then - boom! - out on the floor and sleeping like the dead!" Rose chuckled and hugged her mum back, letting the embrace stretch for a few minutes before gently pulling away.

"Mum...I'm going to have to do it again. The worlds were too far apart last time - I shouldn't have even tried. If it weren't for that last little boost he gave at the end...I nearly killed the Tardis, nearly lost him..." Mired in might-have-beens, she jumped a bit when Jackie touched her arm. Coming back to herself she regarded the three standing around her like hovering mother hens.

"Yeah, so, I have to try again. What I saw...something is coming. Through the Void. Maybe it is the Void. I don't know. But I can't fight it alone. I need him. The Tardis is close enough now that I can link through her to the Doctor. Together we should be able to just...bring him here. If it works...I'll be unconscious again. But he'll be able to bring me back."

It was no surprise that no one really liked the idea. The surprise came when Jackie was the first to acquiesce. Surprising for everyone else, that is. Rose looked at her mum, who looked back at her, and they both looked at Chase who at that moment was staring at everything. Jackie nodded, and Rose smiled. They understood, more than Pete or Mickey ever would. And over their protests Jackie raised her voice.

"Quit your complainin'. If Rose says it needs to be done and she can do it, then I believe her. So shaddup." They stared at her, but she had already turned back to Rose. "What can we do to help?"

"Not a whole lot, Mum. Just...watch for him. I don't know where he is or where I'll bring him to. He may just appear right here, or a little ways away, or he might have a bit of a travel to go to get here. Doesn't matter - just need to watch for him. I don't quite know how, but he's the only one who can bring me back in time to take care of what's coming."

She kissed her brother and mum, hugged Pete and Mickey. Then she laid back down on the couch, fixing them with an impudent grin.

"Thought I'd try it this way this time, so you wouldn't have to pick me up off the floor again." With that, she closed her eyes. It wasn't long before they began to see the telltale sheen of her skin, now brightening, brighter, the energy rolling off of her in waves. And then abruptly it was all dark. Too dark. The group rushed out to the porch and stared in disbelief.

The sky had gone black. Not dark, like night had fallen. It went completely black. And the wind howled a threat to all of creation. Jackie's hushed voice cut into the wind-noisy silence.

"The Doctor had better hurry up."


	18. Chapter 18

Bastian had migrated to the back seat with the arrival of the two new passengers. After they'd figured out the seating arrangements - Da and the other man, the Doctor, in the front seat and Bastian, Ellie, and the Martha who wasn't his mum in the back - the Doctor seemed to remember something. With a hurried "Jack, I need a hand!" he darted down the road into the fog, Bastian's dad confused but right on his heels. A few moments of silence spanned those still in the car. Ellie slept on, but both of the others were feeling the effects of the slightly discomforting lack of sound, so Bastian decided it would be up to him to end it.

"So how did you guys get here anyway? Da told me a little bit about time travel but not a lot. Was it fun? Was it scary? What are other places like?"

Martha laughed. She liked this kid. She wondered briefly why she felt such a strange bond with the nine-year-old, but just dismissed it as another oddity in a day more markedly odd than any she'd yet had. And as she was never one to turn down conversation...by the time they saw the first glimpses of movement through the rear window she was in the middle of explaining (or trying to) about a hospital on the moon and bloodsucking aliens. Both of them fell silent again, however, when they realized what they were seeing.

Jack and the Doctor approached, pulling ropes in each hand that stretched back...back...and were attached to the Tardis - which was floating about two feet off the ground, bobbing like a cork on water. Jack seemed slightly impressed. The Doctor looked pleased. And Martha and Bastian jumped out of the car to have a closer look at the hovering blue police box.

"Cool! It flies!" Bastian was quite excited at this new development. Martha just asked how it was possible.

"Well, I had to reconfigure the gravity flux ratio so it wouldn't react to Earth gravity like a big giant box, but rather like a balloon. It doesn't drain any of the active power, so she can still rest and regenerate and we can tie these off to the bumper here and just pull her along." He and Jack were already completing the aforementioned Tardis tow-along setup by the time he was done talking. With an accompaniment of questions from Bastian, all of them piled in the car and drove off, the Tardis bouncing through the air behind them. She seemed happy.

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It felt a surge of energy. The portal was opening once more! With an inaudible growl that echoed through the nothingness, it made its way through the emptiness of the Void, heading towards the fullness of everything.

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Hours had passed and the sky was still black. Neither the atmospheric conditions nor the strange sense of foreboding worked to put at ease the three seated on the patio. It had become like watching a tornado or hurricane on the telly - you knew that it was bad, that people would die, but you just couldn't stop watching.

Jackie had scrounged through the cupboards and managed to fix some food, but whereas all of them were hungry, their bowls were nearly untouched. All they could do was stare off the patio at the darkness. Stare, and wait. It felt as though the worlds were waiting with them.

If only they didn't feel as though they were awaiting their doom.


	19. Chapter 19

Bastian, though laughing and chatting just as much as the rest of the car's passengers, kept watch over his sister faithfully, and so it was that he was the first to see her eyes open, slowly focusing as she snapped out of whatever it was that had been keeping her asleep.

"Bastan?" She sounded tired, and a little scared, and quiet though the word was it cut through the animated talk like a razor.

"Ellie!" came Jack's cry from the front seat as he slowed the car to a stop by the side of the road. By this time, Bastian had Ellie out of the carseat and was hugging her. Father and brother made sure she was okay while the other guests sat and talked quietly to each other, and everything was normal again. At least, until Ellie's face went blank and she responded to a question no one had asked.

"Okay, I'll tell 'im."

"Tell who what, Ellie-girl?" Jack asked, but her attention had already been turned from those familiar to her, and focused on the two people she hadn't met.

"Is one of you the Doctor?" Both heads swiveled in her direction.

"That would be me! Pleased to meet..." The Doctor stopped short as he fully looked into the little girl's face - and saw his own eyes gazing back at him. Oh, they weren't the same color, same shape, no, but he knew that he was gazing somehow into the eyes of a smaller version of himself. Both hearts stopped but he didn't notice, didn't see anything but his eyes looking back at him out of a face that, aside from the ginger hair, was a spitting image of a younger Rose. The knowledge rocked him to the core. He reached out one trembling hand and brushed her baby-soft cheek - and nearly fell over in shock as he brushed her mind as well. A mind so advanced for a human of this age...but perfectly normal for his people. His mouth opened and shut repeatedly, but nothing came out. So intent was he that he missed Jack and Bastian smile a bit warily at one another, didn't notice Martha's obvious confusion.

"How...you..." With the imperiousness only a toddler could manage, she cut off his astonished stammering.

"She says it's not important right now, you 'ave to listen to 'er."

He shook his head as though trying to knock the cobwebs loose.

"Who says that?"

"The nice blue box. She says the Wolf is calling us to her. She says it can 'appen now, the worlds are close enough. Something about a con...very...no, vur...convurgenz..."

The Doctor only had time to gasp as the car, its passengers, and its tag-along police box became suffused with a faint golden glow.

As the glow built and faded, it left nothing behind. The now blackened sky had no light to shine on the abandoned stretch of highway that ran off empty-handed to either end of view.

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The world shattered. Time splintered. And through the broken shards of reality came the hunger - that ravenous all-devouring appetite. It could not touch the physical world - the gateway, while having just opened, had not yet split wide enough to allow it through. But it could feed off the energy it pulled into the portal; it could draw the force of life through to itself in ever-increasing quantities. And it could bide its time. It had existed before Time was born.

A few hours were nothing.


	20. Chapter 20

Somewhere down the darkened beach there was a flash of golden light, and a car full of very surprised passengers with a police box tied to the back bumper landed with a "fwumph" in the damp sand. Inside the car, while a man, a woman, and a little boy tried unsuccessfully to see in the blackness surrounding them, the remaining man - who wasn't really a man at all - was struggling furiously with the shock, denial, and hope that had sprung like early spring daisies at the utterly unexpected contact with the daughter he'd never fathered. Oh, he supposed he had - rather, his double had. Not that he hadn't thought about it once in a while, wanted it (though he never would have said it), even had one very odd dream concerning the possibility a while back, before dismissing the entire idea on the basis of reasons which had seemed quite reasonable at the time but which now just seemed dumb. Apparently, though, his other-dimensional self had done more than just ponder and dream - and this beautiful little human/Gallifreyan girl was the result. For the first time in a very long time, the Doctor was completely speechless. And Martha was the first to realize the lack of usual babbled explanations.

"Doctor?" His head snapped up, eyes filled with guilt, wonder, and a dozen other emotions she couldn't have begun to put names to. For a moment he just looked blankly at her, as though a myriad other things had need of his immediate attention before he could answer her query. Then he visibly shook himself and seemed to be almost back to normal.

"Where were you just now? You looked a million miles away." He blinked twice.

"Contemplating the continuation of a nearly extinct race," he replied cryptically before looking around at what he could see of their surroundings. Which wasn't much, at the moment, as they were still surrounded by darkness. Martha knew that his response was likely the best she'd get to that particular question, so she changed topics.

"Where are we?" A sudden thought crept up and sunk its claws into her fear center. "Are we in the Void?" Oddly enough, a little voice beat the Doctor in response time.

"No, silly. The Void 'asn't come through yet. We're 'ere!" And with that enigmatic pronouncement, Ellie lifted her arms to her brother so he could rescue her from her carseat. Martha was confused, and she wasn't the only one.

"Yes, but where is "here"?" Jack muttered.

"We're in the world with the Bad Wolf! An' we hafta 'urry or she'll get all eated up!" The Doctor didn't like the sound of that. He swallowed his rampaging thoughts and turned to the little munchkin who was currently clambering over everyone and everything to get to the door.

"What do you mean?" Her long-suffering sigh was so adult it would have been comical in any other circumstance.

"She's in the Dark Place, an' you hafta rescue 'er before the Big Dark eats her!" Suddenly the pieces clicked in his mind.

"Sweet Mother of Chaos!" The group turned to stare at him as he ripped the seatbelt from its buckle and sprung from the car, motioning frantically to for them to do the same.

"What? What's wrong?" Besides everything, thought Martha. She watched as he scooped up Ellie, putting her on his shoulders with an admonition to hold on tight.

"I know where we are! I just hope...please let us not be too late..." His voice faded in volume but grew in urgency. "See that little pinprick of light down there?" They could barely discern it in the unending black that seemed to have swallowed the world, but it was there.

"Yeah, we do," called Jack from where he stood off to her left, by the sound of things.

"Run towards it! We'll meet you there!" And with that the Doctor's swift footfalls took off in the direction that he'd pointed out. Martha felt her fear mingle with a sensation of wrongness to take up residence in the base of her spine as she steeled herself to follow. So frightened was she that the touch on her hand made her yelp before she realized it was Bastian. They gripped hands tightly, each drawing and lending comfort just by being there. Just as they secured their grip to one another, Martha felt Jack's strong hand envelope her free one and berated herself for the tingle of awareness that danced along her nerve endings at his touch. Admit it, girl, whispered her inner self, he is one amazingly attractive man. She slapped the mental voice down only to concede the point when he spoke, his voice turning her knees to jam.

"Well, beautiful, I think it's time we followed the Doctor's orders." They set off at a fast job towards the tiny glow and even though Martha knew that this situation was more dangerous than anything else she'd been in, she couldn't deny the feeling coursing through her veins, and se realized that, in the bond of their clasped hands, for the first time in a long time she'd felt the ring of home.

Fueled by urgency, bolstered by the sensation of rightness between them, the three travelers raced down the beach to their saving beacon of light.

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So warm. So close. The portal was nearing its full dimensions, almost open...how sweet it would be to feed, truly feed once more. It growled in anticipation, moving inexorably closer. Suddenly a faint golden light flared, burned into blazing brightness; it hated the light, feared it, aimed to devour it. Darkness fought light, a match of equals, but both sides knew only one could reign supreme. The darkness knew that this foe was between it and its goal. It had to feed. And if it had to destroy this glowing pain to reach the feast beyond, it must - it would - be victorious.


	21. Chapter 21

She heard the giggle first. Jackie stared into the darkness, trying to ascertain where the sound had come from.

"I tell ya, I heard a giggle!" Pete and Mickey said nothing. When Jacqueline Tyler decided she was right, that's all there was to it. Secretly, however, both men worried that the stress of the past days had taken a greater mental toll than they had originally thought. With Rose still effectively dead to the world Jackie had been more and more on edge, prone now to outbursts of either anger or tears in between the ceaseless observation of the blackness. Still, enough was enough. Pete stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her waist, feeling the comfort both given and received as she stepped back into his embrace. Knowing that whatever he said could spark a fight as easily as sooth the panicked beast below the surface, he chose his words carefully.

"Don't you think it would be better to be rested before the Doctor gets here? You know how nutty things get whenever he shows up." Instead of accusations or hurt, she surprised him with simple weariness.

"I know you blokes are humoring me. You don't think he'll be here. But you're wrong. As much as I sometimes hate to admit it, I wouldn't trust Rose with anyone else. He's always come through when she was in trouble - even if he was the one to start most of it. And this is trouble if I've ever seen it. He'll be here." Mickey took a step forward - not close enough to be in range of her right hook, mind, but closer.

"You don't know that though. I know she loves him an' he loves her, but he said himself it was impossible. You -" She cut him off.

"I will bet you a million pounds to a plate of chips that he'll be here, and probably sooner than we think." Mickey was about to reply when a familiar voice made them all gasp.

"You take that bet, I won't be the only one calling you an idiot." The Doctor was barely breathing hard by the time he had reached the porch - a very good thing, since in the next second he was tackled by a flying Jackie and having all the air in his lungs squeezed out in a hug that could almost have forced him into an early regeneration.

"Doctor! I said you'd be here! See?" She turned to the two standing dumbfounded on the porch. "I told you so!"

"Doctor, who's she?" Jackie spun back around at the small voice that spoke from above the Doctor's head, and stared in confusion at the ginger-haired toddler he was removing from his shoulders and standing on the top step.

"She's...well, this is Jackie, she's..." He broke off and growled at himself before turning back to the little girl. "We'll talk later. I have to get to Rose." Those words heralded the arrival of the other intrepid trio that had just arrived on scene. The Doctor decided to do a quick run-down for everyone, else the questions would take forever.

"Okay, I'll make this quick. Pete, Mickey, Jackie, these are Jack, Martha, and Bastian. The little imp is Ellie. We'll all sit down and have a cuppa later to get acquainted, but for now I have to reach Rose or there won't be a later." He strode purposefully into the small house, leaving the rest of the group to follow.

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It hurt. The strain of holding the darkness at bay was almost too much to take. But Rose - Bad Wolf - held firm. She had to. The Doctor would be here soon - together they could stop this once and for all. She just had...to hold...on...a little...longer...


	22. Chapter 22

He could barely breathe. She was so pale, so still. The Doctor stood for what might have been ages looking at his Rose, stretched out on the couch, her lovely face overshadowed with strain.

"Bad Wolfie!" cried Ellie from beside the Doctor, and before anyone could stop her, she launched herself at the prone figure laying so quietly. In a swift climb she was perched on Rose's stomach, then stretched out full-length along her torso. She laid her head on Rose's chest and smiled.

"Wolfie's 'eart's beating!" she crowed. Whereas Rose's may be beating, he felt his stop completely. Rose, his Rose, laying on the couch with their daughter on her stomach. He was crying and didn't even know it. It was Jackie's voice that cut through the moment.

"So now what? She said you'd be able to bring her back. How you gonna wake her up?" The response came once more from the ginger-headed girlie.

"Don't you know? It's like in the stories. 'e's gotta kiss 'er."

The room fell to silence. The Doctor didn't bother to correct Ellie, even though the only thing he really needed to do to bring Rose back was touch her temple, slip into her mind. She was right. He needed to do this. To the accompaniment of absolute silence, punctuated only by the thundering of his hearts and fueled by equal portions worry and anticipation, he crossed the few steps to her side and dropped to his knees. The world could have exploded in that moment and he never would have noticed.

He leaned close to her, the smell of her shampoo mingling with the familiarly enticing scent that was Rose herself. He could hear her breath; feel the beat of her heart resonating within the crystal that resided beneath his shirt still. Raising his hand he placed it beside her head, playing gently with her soft hair. And as the gathered group unknowingly held their breath, he finally crossed the line he'd drawn in their relationship for reasons that no longer made sense, if they ever had to begin with. He lowered his lips to hers, threaded his mind with hers, and launched himself into the darkness of legend to stand and fight by the side of the woman he loved.

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It screamed in triumph. This guardian had strength that went beyond the apparent, but she was weakening. Dark battled light in a fight as old as time itself, but light began to grow weary. The hunger grew, pressed forward, prepared to lunge and devour...

A sudden burst of silvery glow collided with the unending blackness. It shrieked in pain, in anger, retreating from the agony. Gold light mingled with silver, meshed, built upon the other. Both minds, having been so long separated and so cruelly, embraced to form a pillar of shining flame that expanded with every moment. The darkness, that which had known naught but hunger and violence, came to understand something else.

For the first time, it knew fear.

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Rose was tired. So very tired. She was holding onto her strength by the proverbial fingertips. She had to. Until he got here, she was the only thing keeping the darkness from the rest of existence. She thought of her mum, of Mickey and Pete, and Chase...the little brother she had yet to truly enjoy...she had to hold on...but she was so tired...she could feel herself slipping...letting go...she heard it call its victory...whispered an apology, and then...

A silver light appeared within her own fading glow, standing next to her, boosting her, holding her up...and holding her hand. She sensed the image of a pair of amazingly missed coffee-dark eyes and smiled. And within the resonating happiness, she finally got to hear what she'd already known.

"Doctor, you're here! I mean, with me!" She felt his mind smile, balm to a soul wounded by distance and time. In this realm where they had no physical forms, she could still feel his embrace and leaned into it.

"Of course I am. I love you. Where else would I be?" His cheekiness returned. "Besides, couldn't let you have all the fun and beat the bad guy without me now, could I?"

Rose - the essence that was Rose - felt warmed from within. But she knew they only had a few moments at most before the spirit of the Void launched another attack. Not another word was uttered as she let him fully into her mind; let him know what she - they, now - faced. She could feel the confirmation of a shocking truth, the surprise that this creature from legend actually existed. He opened his mind as well, let her see the origins of the darkness that was the Void, the fact that only his people had held the key to its silence, that it had taken more than one to keep the hunger at bay.

"But you're the last! Surely you can't face alone what it took your people working together to beat!" Her heart echoed the protest - she couldn't bear to lose him. Not again. He smiled, a smile she sensed held a secret, a secret she would pry out of him if they survived this.

"But I'm not alone, Rose. Not anymore. I have you! And we have..." he paused suspiciously, and she wondered what that pause had masked, known he had almost given away his secret.

"...each other," she finished for him. She felt his joy and even though they had no bodies, she knew she felt his fingers twine with hers in that old familiar grip. She could sense his wacky grin.

"Let's go show darkness why it should fear the light." And they turned together to face the onslaught of the hunger that had regrouped and had hurled itself at them.

The fight was well and truly on.


	23. Chapter 23

Jackie finally had something to do besides worry. Not that she wasn't still doing that, to be sure. But she heated water for everyone to have a cuppa, and found cheese and crackers. No banquet, that, but munchable food always lifted people's spirits. Plus, the act of cutting and arranging the food on a couple of plates lent her a chance to observe the newcomers without being interrupted.

Jack - not the Jack she knew, but just as charmingly roguish - sat with Pete and Mickey discussing Torchwood. It seemed that he worked there in his world just as they did in this one, and they were more than happy to compare ideas and concepts with one another for the better part of half an hour now. If she hadn't been watching Jack carefully, if discreetly, she would have thought him totally immersed in the subject, but she saw the glances, quick and hidden, he shot towards the girl Martha that had come in with him.

Martha was another puzzle. She seemed to have only a passing acquaintance with Jack, but Jackie had been Powell Estates' reigning gossip queen for over a decade and a half, and she'd tar and feather herself if that little boy Martha was talking to wasn't the offspring of her and Jack. The boy had the beginnings of his father's classically handsome face and build, but that caramel skin and those dark dark eyes spoke volumes of Martha. Abruptly Jackie wondered if Martha and Jack were from the same world, and if not, was Bastian's mum the Martha from Jack's world? She knew she was most likely correct with her assumption, so she decided to not question it any longer. Parallel worlds and the such were beginning to give her a headache. Finishing the snack trays, she plunked them down on the table and drew a chair over so she could sit down with her tea and contemplate the little girl laying on her daughter's stomach.

Now, Jackie was no idiot, regardless of how frequently people - including herself - underestimated her. She knew her daughter, trusted her. And Rose always maintained that there had been nothing physical between her and the Doctor. So the only explanation she could come up with to explain the tiny girl she knew was her granddaughter was that the Rose in a different world had made the most of her time with her Doctor. It didn't explain why the ginger-haired girl called Jack "Da," but Jackie knew one way or another she'd find out the whole story...once the current danger was averted, that was.

That they were all in danger no one doubted. They just wished they knew what kind of danger. Jackie sighed. Speculation wouldn't help. Instead, she turned her attention to this Martha girl. She was quite curious as to how this unknown, pretty girl came to be traveling with her daughter's man. She truly hoped she wouldn't end up having to slap him when he woke up. Rose wouldn't like that at all.

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In the darkened livingroom the Time Lord, his mate, and their almost-child curled near one another, fighting a war no one else would ever see. A war with all of existence at stake. A war that, though it had its roots in time long past, had only just begun.

It was a wearying win-and-lose battle. Had anyone ever told Rose she'd be more tired and sore after a mental fight than she would ever be after her hardest gymnastics sessions, she'd have told them they were nutty. But now, aching in ways she hadn't considered possible, she hoped she'd never go through anything like this again. The Doctor wasn't faring much better, she knew, and even more than her own pain she wanted this ordeal to be over so she could soothe his hurts. Her thoughts were scattered during the next mental onslaught.

"It's too close a match for us, Doctor," she moaned. "We're almost done in, and it is too, but I think we may fold first."

"We can't love. All of creation will die!"

"I know!" Her anguish he felt keenly, echoed as his own. They could sense the hungry blackness building for a next attack, and they both knew it would be the last they could repel.

"Doctor..." Rose had an idea. "What if we charge it? It's as weak as we are, and it won't be expecting an attack."

"Yes...it might work..." She could feel him thinking, his brain working faster than even Bad Wolf could keep up with. "It will be close, but I think we can do it."

"Well, whatever we're doing, it had better be soon!" The sensation of their clasped hands, that illusion of contact, helped fuel their determination. If they lost this, they lost everything. Including each other. The knowledge bolstered the fire between them. She sensed his attention shift solely to her for a moment.

"Rose..."

"I know, Doctor."

"Right then. Let's do this." They opened their minds wholly, allowing the collective powers of the Vortex's Wolf and the Oncoming Storm to infuse every fiber of their beings. Wolf and Storm slammed into the darkness like a freight train. Met it, encircled it, crushed all they were into and around it, a vise grip of life wrapped around a material fog of death. It fought back like a trapped tiger, strong even though ebbing, striking out against the unexpected pain, seeking to hurt its captors as well as free itself. WolfStorm struggled to not only keep it contained but to cut it off, to smother it, to destroy it even as it would destroy everything. The battle was hard, ceaseless, the very air trembling with strain and agony. And they knew it had to be soon - they wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

In a wrench of power it nearly broke free. WolfStorm screamed as the darkness struggled to rip their minds to shreds. They tried to hold it, trap it, but they felt it slipping...slipping...

...slipping...


	24. Chapter 24

Ellie knew lots of things. For example, she knew that stars were really homes for angels. She knew that if she mixed just the right amount of blue and yellow in her paint cup, it turned the color of caterpillars. She knew, despite what Da said, that ketchup on chicken was really very yummy. And though she didn't know how she knew it, she knew the two people in the darkened room with her were connected to her in a very important way. So when she felt their fear, their pain, their determination, and their need, Ellie knew one more thing.

She knew she and she alone could help them.

Thoughts don't always process in a child's mind as they do in an adult's. So whereas a grown person would probably think things through and look at situations rationally, Ellie simply asked the nice blue box how she could help, and followed the instructions given.

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Jackie glanced at her mysterious granddaughter and smiled. Ellie had fallen asleep on Rose, one hand tangled in Rose's hair, the other resting on top of the Doctor's head.

"We can't let go, Rose!" She felt him with every fiber of her being, knew his weariness as well as she did her own.

"It's not giving up! We can't hold it much longer!" It seemed that his sigh came from her lips, mingled despair and pain. And though they knew the destruction in store if they slipped completely, their grip was so tenuous it almost didn't exist anymore.

"Bring it to the world!" A new voice, small yet confident, infused their beings, bringing life and light and strength where there had been only death and darkness and weakness for so long now.

Who are you?" Rose/Wolf was stunned at the force behind the voice. Rather than answer her, however, Doctor/Storm simply asked how.

"We gotta link to each other and pull! She says it's the only way 'cause it's only weak out 'ere in this world!"

"Rose, don't ask, just do it! It'll work!"

Rose/Wolf didn't need Doctor/Storm's assurance to know it would. With the entire exchange taking less time than a breath, the Storm, the Wolf, and the Unknown Voice opened fully to each other, joining, wrapping the malevolent darkness up within their own renewed strength, the three who were one pulled...

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Jackie screamed as the entire world shuddered and shook, and she wasn't the only one. Dishes flew here and there, crashing to the floor and flightlessness, leaving scattered sharp pieces here and there like so much painful carpeting. Hail suddenly pounded the windows with all of the fury of hell, shattering the glass and adding clear diamond-like shards to the scattered remains of the dishes. Everyone in the room fell into the icy grip of terror as everything tried its damndest to shake itself to bits around them.

"Jacks!" Pete called in the maelstrom.

"I'm okay! Mickey? Martha? Jack? Bastian?" She called their names while sheltering her baby from the whirling flying debris, feeling the fright loosen its grip a bit at the affirmative replies from everyone. The group made their way to the livingroom, the one place that seemed untouched, huddling together as best they could, fighting fear that had risen like burning bile in their throats. It seemed forever...it seemed beyond forever. Chase's screams were drowned out by the howling and squealing and thumping as what seemed like the very end of the world began. No one knew how long they stayed there, crouched over the three prone people at the couch, backs turned to take the full force of whatever was zinging by in the air. More than a couple cuts and gashes and abrasions would have to be taken care of...Jackie had the absurd thought that Torchwood would be buying a new beach house for the owner of this one. The air they'd thought malicious before was renewing its fury, and now Chase wasn't the only one crying, in pain or fear. Jack snatched Martha and Bastian close to him, keeping the boy in the center of the group, closest to the Doctor and Rose and Ellie, protecting him from almost all of the danger, protecting Martha with just as much care, though he couldn't keep the occasional shrapnel from cutting into her. His heart clenched each time she winced, and though he didn't know he was doing it, he kept pressing little apologetic kisses into her hair as the raging went on around them.

Then it stopped. Just...stopped. No one moved or lifted their heads. No one wanted to be the first to view the devastation. It wasn't until Jackie felt a hand brush her shoulder that she opened her eyes, but when she raised her head to see who touched her, she was on her feet in an instant.

"Rose!" She took in her daughter's weary yet proudly content expression and grabbed her into a hug. To no small amount of shock from everyone, she latched onto the Doctor with the other hand and yanked him into the embrace as well. That was all it took for everyone else to gather closer, folding into one another in a group hug that was as much relief as happiness, as warm as it was tearful, a laughing, crying dogpile with the Time Lord and the former shop girl in the center. The Doctor gathered Ellie in with himself and Rose, holding onto them both tightly, as though he'd never let them go. And there they stood, in the shell of the house that had protected them all from what had almost been the apocalypse of all of creation.

Over the gradually stilling waters of the bay, three glorious suns arose to shed their light on the newly-born morning.


	25. Chapter 25

Rose yawned widely. They probably should have gone straight to sleep but elation and relief, as well as the combined excitement of having everyone there together, had combined to create an atmosphere that wasn't about to allow dreamtime. The Doctor, however, noticed her yawn immediately. No real surprise, as he hadn't left her side all morning, staying within touching distance at all times.

"Okay, well, we will be more than happy to explain what happened later, but not right now. I'm a bit done in, Rose is asleep on her feet, and it looks like the little ones are already down for the count." The Doctor gestured to the livingroom where - after having helped clean up a bit to make the house habitable for the next few nights - Bastian and Ellie had collapsed in exhausted little mounds on the floor, the girl using her brother's leg for a pillow. "So I think we should all have a bit of a sleep and talk more when we're all rested." For once, absolutely no one argued with him. He stood, pulling Rose to her feet.

"Come along, then, off to bed with you."

"Doctor, where's the Tardis?" He blinked, off guard.

"Down the beach a little bit. Why?" She yawned again.

"Could we...I mean, is my room still..." She didn't seem to know how to finish, and he felt his hearts warm. He smiled gently at her, a smile full of emotion, and she smiled back.

"Of course it is, Rose."

"Then, could we sleep there tonight? I want..." She paused, gazing into the eyes of the love of her life. "I want to go home."

With a smile that could have powered all of London he guided her out the door and down to the Tardis, who was more than happy to have her people back. She sighed in contentment as they lay down on Rose's bed together, and as soon as they were asleep she sent them soothing thoughts and happiness. Everything would be okay now. And thus the Tardis welcomed them home.

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Author's note: Thank you all so much - the reviews and kind comments have made me so very glad I posted this story. :-D Now, before you think it's all done...there's an epilogue on its way. Will be posting the first part of it later on today. So, once more, thanks and keep reading!


	26. Chapter 26

"In the time before time began, it was empty. It wasn't cold, nor was it hot, neither light nor dark. It wasn't anything, because nothing existed to define it. It simply was. Everything changes, however, and so it was with the emptiness. It learned rock and leaf and beating heart, rain and steel and the music of the wind. It knew life and death and bit by bit it slid into existence. Mostly, anyway. But as it learned of similarities, it learned also of differences. And it became aware. It learned and absorbed everything, saw the dichotomy of creation and evolution in all their confounding glory and pain. And just as any awareness is both light and dark, so did it split as well. The nothingness that was awareness changed yet again, becoming two sides of the same coin, benevolence and hatred intertwined.

"Eventually as planets and galaxies began to form, to spring into being, the new empty-no-longer space divided completely, becoming no longer the sum of its parts but two separate entities. One half lived on to foster the suns, the stars, the universes themselves. In time it became curious about the new concept of paradox, and so it sought to study it, to learn more, to become more. It was an ever-thirsting mentality and the need for new information led it to splinter reality to shards and to scatter those shards throughout newborn Time. The same exact starting point, in an infinite number of places simultaneously. And so were born what later beings would come to call "dimensions," "parallel worlds," "planes of existence." And the thirsty mind, having billions upon billions of new things to observe and learn from, was sated. And thus was created the Vortex.

"The other half thrived on blackness; discontent, greed, hatred. It saw the worlds its former otherself had brought into being and was envious. It had learned absolutely nothing of creation, but only seeds of destruction. Being thus unable to achieve a similar feat it grew more and more vicious and evil. It decided that, if it couldn't destroy the worlds, it would infect the space between them and thereby destroy the possibility of the paradox its otherself so desired. That was the birth of the Void, and for many times longer than anything living would ever be able to comprehend, it was the darkness awaiting the future travelers between realms.

"By this time there was life in the worlds, aware of itself and its surroundings. Billions of possibilities had been planted in the sowing of each galaxy, millions upon millions which were fruitful. The universes were teeming with life and that made the Vortex happy even as it angered the Void. It would be many many mortal lifetimes before beings were to take form and understand the concepts that existed. In time, they would "discover" things, not realizing that said things weren't new, only unknown to them. And after many thousands of these "discoveries", it happened. One bipedal species learned of the concept of interdimensional travel. And the Vortex was even happier.

"These beings, young and unaware as they were, had taken the first step to understanding the vastness of everything beyond themselves. They took this fresh knowledge, developed it, applied it, and in time learned to travel between the many lovely worlds the Vortex had birthed. The Void, however, had other ideas. It let things continue without hindrance until this race of beings believed it knew everything there was to know about their actions. And when they gave in to their arrogance, claimed their superiority, the darkness struck. It feasted upon them, pulling them deeper within itself, into the heart of the Void they'd been vain enough to believe they controlled.

"And so it went for an age or two. The Void devoured anything foolish enough to blunder past its boundaries, and the Vortex had no choice but to watch helplessly. It could not directly interfere, for that would mean destroying itself. For either side to actively thwart the other would be catastrophic as they truly were two halves of a whole, different though they may be. As such, what damaged one portion damaged the whole. It became a period of sadness for the Vortex - a sadness that nourished the Void. It seemed that nothing would be able to alter the situation. The Vortex slowly lost hope. But change will not be denied, and the pendulum swings both ways. Eventually there evolved a group of beings that surpassed any others by simple virtue of the fact that they could not only traverse the Void - that was nothing remarkable at this point. Almost every intelligent race knew of the Void and the dangers...and traveled anyway. No, the remarkable thing about these beings was their ability to pass from one world to another through the Void and remain unharmed.

"The Vortex was astonished. But the Vortex was crafty and let no astonishment show. This group seemed to be able to traverse the Void at will and never be touched by its dark, hungry core. As time evolved, so did these creatures. And at some point, certain elite of this already miraculous group became masters of Time itself. (that, however, is another story for another moment) And so they became the self-appointed guardians of travel, both between times and worlds. They had taken so much upon themselves that the Vortex, in gratitude, did what had never been done before or since and bestowed upon them a gift - the gift of long lives and multiple ones. You see, the dangers they faced every single day were extreme, and though they had evolved the abilities to mostly counterbalance the risks, the fact remained that they could not perform the duties that were so necessary to Time and Space if they were hindered by the normal lifespan of most beings.

"This was the status quo for many generations. They had devised a series of guidelines to follow for anyone attempting time or dimensional travel, a set of regulations designed specifically to avoid the Void whenever it was necessary to go through it. No one knew how they had been lucky enough to figure out these rules - not even the beings themselves, really. But it was so. And they learned that as long as they were alive, the Void was all but harmless. As such, for many ages creatures from all worlds could travel without the fear of arousing the wrathful hunger of the Void.

"As will happen, though, the pendulum swung back, and a race was introduced that would have made the Void proud had it had any hand in its creation. However, it was no heart so dark that brought these creatures into being. No, instead it was the curious vanity of the guardians. Yes - the very ones who protected the entirety of the Vortex's creations had themselves created the antithesis of all they stood for. Their reasons have been lost or forgotten in the winds of years, but the fact of their new race cannot be denied.

"Once more, the story of the evolution of this race and its inevitable clash with its makers is a story for another time. All that needs stated here is that the creation eventually turned on the hands that had given it life. The battle would be later known as the Time War, but to those who lived it, who watched its inception with eyes of denial, it was known first as The Mistake. It was bloody and harsh as wars will be, and there were many casualties on both sides. And the sole survivor had to watch as, in order to save all of Time and Space and the Vortex from this Mistake, he destroyed not only the enemy but his own people as well. His story is long and varied, but at this point he saw himself not as the one who preempted the reign of terror the Mistake would have caused, but only as the orphan who had to watch himself kill everything he'd ever loved.

"Being the only one of his kind, to sole remnant of the race that had held the Void at bay, he could not do it alone. So from that last moment of his people, he forbade himself from traveling through the Void, knowing that - as only one person - he lacked the power on his own to control it, to keep it blind and deaf to the travelers within its bounds. In short time, the few other races remaining that had survived the Time War with the knowledge of how it could be accomplished had unofficially banned Void travel. And Time marched on. And eventually the Void simply slept, as there was no one to wake it up and begin its cycle of destruction again."

"Until us," murmured Pete, the first sound from the group that had been held spellbound by the Doctor's voice for the duration of the story. ""We were responsible for waking it up, weren't we?" The Doctor simply nodded, and the group sat in quiet for a while, no one willing to break it, lost in their own thoughts. In fact, it was Bastian that spoke first, and then not until long moments had passed.

"So how did you guys beat it?" For a moment it seemed like no one would answer, but then Rose, snuggling closer into the Doctor's arms, began to talk.

"It was so cold. I didn't know what I was doing - I just kind of closed my eyes and drifted. I thought about perhaps asking the Tardis, but she still was weak from both journeys through the Void. So I just...drifted. And then I felt it." She seemed to shudder, and the Doctor pulled her closer, resting his chin gently on the top of her head. Finally she could go on.

"It was like...like...imagine a black hole of just...emptiness and meanness and everything wrong...it just pulled everything in, drained anything positive or good and seemed to just...swallow it. I know it doesn't make sense, but there really isn't any way to describe it that I know. It was horrifying. I got the impression of age beyond anything I could ever describe. And I felt Bad Wolf come to the surface, take up the challenge.

"I don't even know how I did what I did, but somehow I knew I was the only thing between it and the physical world, and I couldn't bear thinking of what would happen if it got through, so I just...I guess I kinda stood between it and the rest of the worlds and such."

"You blocked it? Rose, you coulda been killed or swallowed or something!" Jackie's voice was shrill and harsh with worry, but Rose's reply was serenity itself.

"Well, Mum, it was either that or have it destroy everything - the world, the people, you, everyone here." She watched Ellie for a moment where she was leaning on Bastian's knee playing with a flower. "Would you rather I had saved myself and condemned everyone and everything everywhere to death?"

The cold rationality shocked everyone present. She had changed, she realized. She hoped it was for the better. But the truth was there, in her words, in her expressions. She had willingly and knowingly placed the lives of everyone she knew and everyone she didn't know above her own. And whereas she knew she would make the same choice again, she knew so much more now, was aware of so many things than she'd ever known existed. In the face of the knowledge of all of eternity, even having only been suspended in it for such a brief time - with all that, how could she help but be changed by it?

Around her she saw/felt the mixed reactions to what she had said. Her mother, after the initial shock, fairly glowed with pride. Mickey too seemed proud, if reserved, and Rose acknowledged the fact that though the two of them would always be good friends, they would never regain the closeness they'd once shared, back when things were simple. She silently wished him luck with the Lacey person her mum had so cleverly mentioned "just in passing." From Martha she felt a sense of almost awe, a strong feeling of respect, and that warmed her. More than anyone, Rose knew how easy it was to get attached to the Doctor in short notice. She had been prepared for Martha to be jealous, even spiteful, so it was a pleasant surprise that they'd gotten along as well as they had. In fact, the two had begun a friendship of sorts, and Rose respected the other woman just as much as she was thought of so highly. She thought again of the feelings beneath the surface that Martha hadn't needed to confess. Rose really was a bit shocked that the other woman didn't seem resentful. And in that second she took in how close Martha and Jack were sitting, how easily Bastian had repositioned himself to lay his head on her knee, and a light went on. Maybe she shouldn't be so shocked at the lack of negativity after all - it seemed Martha was well on her way to a meaningful bond with a man very obviously besotted with her.

She was happy for them, and for the kids as well. Bastian was such a delight, always curious, always willing to learn. And Ellie? That eager little spitfire was nothing short of absolutely amazing. Jumping into the Void as she had, to relay the message from the Tardis that ultimately saved them all - how? Rose's mind whirled. Humans weren't designed to be able to do that. She herself only had the ability from her bond with the Vortex - and at two years old! Rose was enchanted with her energy, her personality. If she were to ever have a little girl, she would hope that her child could be half as incredible. And that thought inevitably led her back to the Doctor.

Of all the people gathered with her, he was the only one that understood. He'd taken her hand and run with her across galaxies. Was it any wonder she'd fallen so hopelessly in love with him? He hadn't repeated his words from the void - she would never ask him to. But he knew she was his, had been since the beginning. He knew she would move heaven and earth to be with him - had, in fact, done just that, as the three suns slowly dropping beneath the horizon could attest to. Just as she knew he was happy she had, as his arms around her, holding as though he'd never let her go again, could attest to. She leaned her head back against his chest, comforted by the dual pulse that was so alien and yet so very right, giving her the strength and support to continue.

"It was so hard. The Void and I seemed evenly matched, but I tired quicker." A grin spread across her face as the tilted her head to look at the Doctor. "Guess it's 'cause I'm just a stupid ape, eh?" She was prepared for joking, but neither she nor anyone else present was expecting the quiet vehemence that accompanied the steel hardness of his expression.

"I don't ever want to hear you say that again. My former self was a prat." His coffee gaze locked with hers, speaking volumes back and forth, and neither realized how long they'd been sitting there until Pete discreetly cleared his throat. They snapped their heads around to look in different directions as a faint blush worked it's way over Rose's neck and the Doctor's expression faded to just sheepish. Ellie giggled at the two of them.

"You like each other!" she exclaimed with the fervor and excitement only the young or the young-at-heart can manage. Everyone, Rose and the Doctor included, laughed at that. Ellie scampered over and, to the shock of everyone present, plopped herself down on the Doctor's lap. He felt his throat tighten at the completely trusting expression on her features.

"What's the blue box called?"

"She's the Tardis."

"Tardis..." Ellie spoke the word, tasting it and testing it out. "Tardis says she's feeling much better and you should know..." she paused, face taking on a slightly blank expression. Rose realized with no small amount of shock that the girl was actually talking to the Tardis.. "She says that the worlds need to be put back soon, so as not to...mess things up," she finished proudly, happy to have gotten the message right. The pronouncement had the intended effect of sobering everyone present. It had been an eventful vacation, but things did have to go back to normal. However, Rose's mind wasn't on the future, but rather on the mystery of how the girl did what she did.

"Doctor, I didn't think humans could actually converse with the Tardis?" Quick as a blink, all conversation stopped. Jackie all but bounced to her feet.

"Well, I suppose I'd better go start dinner. Pete, Mickey, some help please?" Just as quickly Jack stood, calling both kids over to him.

"It's time these two get washed up for dinner, and I know Bastian has some homework he needs to do." Bastian, being the intelligent boy he was, simply nodded rather than pointing out the fact that it was holidays. Martha stood as well, smiling at Rose before accompanying Jack and the little ones into the house. And just like that, it was only the Doctor and Rose on the beach, all alone, the waves whispering quietly in the background.

"Well that was odd. What's that all about?" In answer he stood and held out his hand to her.

"Walk with me?" And as she had so many times before, she slid her hand into his and trusted him. They walked side-by-side down the beach in silence for a while, and when he stopped and turned to her she realized they were at the exact spot they'd said goodbye at so many months ago. Which meant whatever he was going to tell her was important. Very important.

"It's true," he began. "Humans can't talk to the Tardis. Only one race could - my people."

"Then, how..?"

"Ellie is only half human. The other half is Gallifreyan."

"But...you're the last of your kind! How...wait...is she..?" Rose couldn't finish, though she knew what he was going to say, felt the slow burn of emotion as his eyes confirmed before his words did. How could she have been so blind?

"Yes, Ellie is my daughter. Sort of." As much as it hurt him to do so, he knew he had to shut up, to let her work through it all, and the look on her face broke his hearts all over again. Her beautiful eyes filled with unshed tears; despair and betrayal marked that beloved face like a tattoo of anguish. He could see she wanted him to take it back, to deny what even she knew, and he wondered how long it would take for her to compute herself as the other half of Ellie's parentage. The one thing he didn't expect was for her to sob once and dash away from him. He stared after her rapidly retreating form in shock, standing there helplessly as for the first time ever, his Rose left him.

What are you doing?! his mind screamed at him. Go after her, man! With sudden resolve he rushed after her, pushing himself to catch up - Rassilon, she's fast, he thought proudly - and then finally he was closing, closing, his hand on her arm, abrupt stop, spinning her around so she slammed into his chest, his arms around her, his hands on the back of her head, his lips over hers - finally! - and then all of the world was Rose, all of existence was her scent, the feel of her skin, the silky hair trapped beneath his fingers, the slight struggle as she attempted to break free and then the sweet sweet moment that she gave in, and then she was kissing him back and nothing mattered but the feel of Rose, warm and right and bringing him home, a home he hadn't felt in a very long time.


	27. Chapter 27

She saw his eyes, slightly expectant, but missed the hint of a smile in her startled state. So this was his secret. He had a baby girl - one conceived sometime while they traveled together. How could he? Mister "I Don't Do Domestic" apparently broke that rule long enough to get someone in the family way. And what truly hurt, like a hot dagger in the eye, was that it hadn't been her. Rose had given up on settling down and raising a family a long time ago. He never would, and she wouldn't settle for a second-best someone who would give her a family when she could live out her days with the only man she'd ever really love. She'd spent a morose night on the Tardis once, wrapped in fluffy blankets, bidding goodbye to the family they'd never have. And just now he was admitting that he'd given that precious little girl to someone else, to some other woman who hadn't felt for him what Rose did. It was too much. Far too much for her to take. So she did the only thing she could. She ran - down the beach, away from those shining eyes, those arms that had been home. No more, she silently pleaded. I can't take any more. She could hear his footfalls as he caught up with her, his hand landing on her arm, spinning her around and then he was kissing her - KISSING her! How DARE he! - she didn't want this...didn't want him...she didn't...want him...to stop...never stop...her head spun, pain and anger and joy and amazement screaming through her as his kiss set her nerve endings on fire and she couldn't remember why she'd run in the first place, all she knew was that she was home...home at last.

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They'd put both Ellie and Chase down for naps, leaving the adults and Bastian to gather once more around the table, tea in hand, to discuss what was next. Jackie, of course, started everything off with the question in everyone's mind.

"So, Jack. How come your daughter looks more like my Rose and the Doctor than you?" Jack chuckled.

"I wondered when someone would ask that." And he gave them an abbreviated version of the full story he'd told Bastian. Abbreviated because he was far too aware of the beautiful woman sitting two spaces to his left. He couldn't bring up his previous marriage to her double. Not when he was quickly becoming attracted to this Martha. She may look like his wife, but her personality was totally different; fiery rather than reserved, publicly emotional instead of guarded around people. Oh, there were similarities - mostly in little things, like her expression when she tried not to smile, the crinkle at the corners of her eyes when she laughed. No, she wasn't his Martha. She was her own unique person. And it was so intoxicating. He wrenched his wandering mind from the paths it was traveling and placed it firmly back on the conclusion of the explanation.

"So yes, Ellie is the Doctor and Rose's daughter, just not THIS Doctor or THIS Rose." Jackie sipped her tea for a while before speaking, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"And the Doctor knows. Obviously Rose doesn't. To be honest I suspected something, but it pretty much ended in the assumption that I'd have to slap him again."

"Never happen," said Martha. "He's been so broken ever since I met him. He wanders the Tardis every night, seeing her around every corner, but she's not there. He thought no one knew. But whenever anyone mentioned Rose, he...came to life. He told me once about a woman who had materialized on his ship right after the Rift closed, and he nearly chucked her into the Void because she implied he'd done something to get rid of Rose intentionally." She laughed at the scandalized looks she got.

"Seriously, though. I don't think he's spent even an hour without her foremost in his mind. And when the Tardis set up that link so they could talk...he powered that link himself, and it nearly killed him, all so he could just talk to her. I'd never seen him for who he truly was until then. I saw the happy man instead of the distant stranger. I've never seen love like that before." The entire group fell silent at that, each lost in their own thoughts.

Martha thought about love. Did she even really know what it was? She'd thought she loved the Doctor, but as she'd talked just now she realized she never even really knew him. She realized she'd been more in love with the idea of loving him - the dashing, otherworldly time and space traveler with the melancholy hidden past - than with the Doctor himself. Martha was infinitely glad he'd gotten his Rose back. He deserved someone who loved him for who he was rather than for what he was. She only hoped someday she'd be able to know what they had, that kind of love, a love that can bridge galaxies, or even hearts. For some bizarre reason that brought her thoughts to Jack. She only just met him, but already she felt a connection with him and his children - a bond she couldn't explain and didn't understand. It made no sense. It wasn't just the man's charisma or the little ones' charm. It went deeper, somehow. Deep enough that she knew she would be very sad whenever the time came to say goodbye. She knew when the worlds split, she'd miss them terribly. Shit! The divergence!

"So what's gonna happen when these worlds separate? Anyone know?" Everyone snapped back to the here and now with that question. Pete spoke first, thoughtfully and somewhat hesitantly, and Martha realized it was because he was used to being certain, but now had no certainty to fall back on. This must have been a difficult few days for him.

"We really don't know. We had no idea what to expect when they converged to begin with. I'm thinking it should be gradual, but I don't know how it will determine what belongs to which world." He pulled a felt-tipped pen from his pocket and sketched a bit on the tabletop.

"See, the worlds are kinda like this right now, these three circles joined to each other at the edge, all combined at this one point. We are here, where the three are overlapping. But the physical worlds don't just overlap here where we are, but here, here, and here, where each ring only touches one other. At least, that's as close as we can guess.

"I don't even have a guess as to how they'll separate, or what will happen when they do." Jack looked thoughtfully at the diagrams for the moment, then silently asked for the pen, which Pete handed over. Sketching on the table, he spoke thoughtfully.

"See, when my Torchwood did its calculations, they realized that the pull to merge the worlds created a bit of a reality distortion, so it would really be more like three rounded triangles touching at their points. It would stretch the fabric of the worlds mainly because of the sheer force required to arrange them so."

"That means this is the only place really touching then, right?"

"You got it, Mickey. And Pete's right, we don't know what's gonna happen. The only person that might know is the Doctor." Jack chuckled, mischief dancing in his eyes. "But I think he's weathering his own storm at the moment, since Rose has no clue that Ellie is sort of their daughter. Anyone care to wager on what her first reaction will be?" Good natured joking and banter lightened the atmosphere, and a pleasant mood settled over the group enjoying what time they had together.

And in the livingroom, a little girl lay pretending to be asleep, talking to the blue box - Tardis - and trying to puzzle through what her Da had said.

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Rose's first coherent thought was that she was very happy that he'd caught her on a stretch of beach behind some large rocks - they at least had a bit of privacy in case anyone walked past. Then she blushed deep crimson as she realized that any passersby wouldn't have needed to see them to know what had just transpired - the sounds alone would have been a dead giveaway. As she caught her breath, eyes still closed, she let her mind drift over the events of the past few days and realized that, even with the whole "end of the world" drama, she was happier than she'd been in months. Curled up there beside the Doctor on his coat spread on the soft sand, her head on his shoulder and her hand resting on his chest, toying with the chain of her old crystal - so sweet, that - she thought she'd never been so happy. But as she slowly came back to the present she recalled why she'd run in the first place. Propping herself on one elbow, she looked right into those remarkable eyes and prepared for her heart to be broken again.

"Who's her mum then?" She didn't really want to hear the answer, but she had to. She needed to know who had been the other half of his daughter, who had been the one to join with him to create that beautiful girl. She was prepared for sheepishness, apologies - especially considering the events of the past hours - even denial. But what she was not expecting was the twinkle in his eyes, the wide grin. Or his answer.

"You are."

"Sorry?"

"You are Ellie's mother, Rose." She was now completely and thoroughly confused. He drew her gently down for a kiss and then let her sit up again.

"You'd have to ask Jack the whole story, but apparently there were a Rose and a Doctor in his world too. And they..." He got a bit distracted by her shifting positions, and cleared his throat before continuing. "They apparently took their relationship farther than we had -"

"Not my choice, Doctor. I've wanted this for a while now. Years, even." He blinked repeatedly and she laughed at having caught him off guard.

"Really? Years? When...?" Rose cut him off.

"Doctor. Ellie. Remember?"

"Oh yes. Well, anyway, my double and your double created that incredible little girl, who Jack then raised as his own, due to the fact that both of them are dead. I think that's about it." Rose let the death thing pass for the moment - they had all the time in the world now to talk. She just had to rib him about his obvious affection for the girl in question.

"You really do care for her, don't you?" He tried to seem aloof.

"Well, you know, for a small human, I suppose she's okay, I mean..." Rose grinned, laying back down on his bare chest so that he wouldn't think she was laughing at him...even if she was. A little.

"But if you - your double - is her father, then she's not all human. She's half Gallifreyan."

"I suppose she is."

"Stop sounding so damn...alien!" she laughed, poking him in the side. He squirmed a bit, and suddenly Rose felt very powerful. The knowledge that washed over her was a heady feeling. Without warning, she danced her fingers down his side, giggling at his startled yelp.

"Why, Doctor - you're ticklish!"

"Am not! Just very sensitive to - HEY! Stop that, you! Don't anger the alien...eep! Why, you..." His playful grown was warning enough for Rose to try to leap to her feet and escape, but she didn't even manage to make it to "standing" let alone "running" before he flipped her onto her back and stretched out on top of her, his passion-dark eyes pinning her to the soft ground as effectively as his strong hands pinned her offending ones above her head.

Matters of parenthood settled, matters of ticklishness forgotten, the two whose hearts were one heralded the oncoming evening by immersing themselves within each other, and the cocoon of love blocked out the world once more.


	28. Chapter 28

It was early twilight when the disheveled pair made their way back to the house. They'd discussed so much after...well, after. So they had developed a bit of a game plan about how to handle things. They'd planned to act as though everything was normal...but they hadn't figured on Jack's very healthy wit.

"So I guess you two buried the hatchet," said Mickey as they walked through the door. Jack couldn't let that one slide.

"Oh, is that what the kids are calling these days? Can't keep up with all the slang, me." Rose knew she was blushing, knew the Doctor would be looking at Jack with that mock fierceness in his eyes. Pete, however, missed the entire undertone and simply addressed the Doctor.

"So when can we expect the worlds to separate again?"

"Whenever I choose to let them," came the calm reply - one nobody was prepared for. Nobody except Rose, who had finally realized what it meant to truly be a Time Lord. They weren't going to tell Jackie just yet, that her daughter was now a...well, an all-but-immortal mortal. The Vortex had gifted her for her willingness to sacrifice to save it. They glanced at each other, and she knew he'd caught her thoughts. The pride and love in his eyes turned her insides to mush.

"Sorry?" asked Pete. The entire group was a bit confused, but as the Doctor had predicted on the way back, Jack caught on sooner than the rest. Rose had maintained that perhaps this Jack wasn't as familiar with the workings of Time Lords, since he'd obviously never been a Time Agent. The Doctor simply told her to wait and see. So neither were surprised when he spoke.

"Of course! More than one Time Lord in existence now - which means you can manipulate the Void as well as the Vortex!" Martha shared a glance with Jackie before they looked back at the Doctor. Deciding wisely not to comment on the sand caking his long coat, or the mis-buttoned front of Rose's shirt, Jackie decided to stay on the subject at hand.

"So you're sayin' that because of Ellie he can - what, command infinity? Why couldn't he do that months ago? She was conceived almost three years before this."

"Not quite that simple, Jackie," jack explained. "From what I understand, Ellie wasn't capable of functioning on the subconscious level that Time Lords o until she'd come into contact with the Tardis. See..." he trailed off, noticing the amused expressions on Rose and the Doctor's faces. Smiling sheepishly, he winked at them. "Sorry - didn't mean to steal your moment there. You can tell them." The Doctor shook his head.

"What, and ruin a perfectly good explanation? By all means, continue."

"Right then. Well, as I know it -" he looked at the Doctor, who nodded. "- not all Gallifreyans can be Time Lords. Only certain ones, meeting strenuous criteria, are selected for that honor. You can usually tell them at a young age by their ability to communicate with the Tardis ships. But as Ellie had never been in contact with one, it wasn't until this one showed up that it was able to tap into her unconscious mind and talk to her, and her to talk back. She actually started communicating about a month or so ago, having dreams about the Tardis. I believe it was the ship deliberately nurturing her ability."

"But why? She's just a baby!" came Martha's worried tone. Deep within, Jack warmed to hear that note in her voice concerning his little girl. Rose was the one to answer, rather than the Doctor.

"That baby saved us all. She gave us the boost of mental power we needed, and passed on the Tardis' information that ultimately helped us defeat the Void. Neither of us would have considered doing what she came into the Void to tell us to do. Without her, none of us - or anything else - would exist right now." She turned to Jack. "You may not have been her biological father, but you are her dad. She is who she is with a lot of thanks to you. You must be very proud." Jack shook his head.

"When it comes right down to it, I...well, I wasn't in a good mental state after my wife died. I didn't have much to do with Ellie at all. Bastian pretty much raised her himself. I think we owe him that thanks. And I am proud, of both of them." All eyes turned to the little boy at the table, who seemed to be suffering from a combination of embarrassment and ego simultaneously. Rose walked around the table and crouched down beside his chair, putting herself more or less on eye level with him.

"In that case, I thank you." She paused. "Bastian, I know I'm not your mum, not even the Rose you knew. But I'd be very happily honored to be your friend. The Doctor and I both." He swallowed and nodded, his throat tight. Here was this woman who looked and sounded just like Mum, who was asking for his friendship. He wondered if he should shake her hand or something, but she took the choice from him and enfolded him in a comforting hug. When he looked up at her through a sheen in his eyes he saw tears in hers as well, and a glance at his Da showed pride beyond anything Bastian had ever seen in his eyes. Suddenly Bastian knew that everything would be okay and he grinned at Rose, who laughed and ruffled his hair.

"Better watch your boy, Jack. He's gonna be a right rogue when he gets older." Jack's full-throated laugh was infectious.

"That's my boy!" Bastian had never felt so good.


	29. Chapter 29

No long and tearful goodbyes - no goodbyes at all, in fact. They'd talked long into the night, deciding who was going where and for how long, as well as when they would all get together again. Now that there was more than one Time Lord in existence, dimensional travel would be no more difficult than driving across town. By mutual agreement, no one would speak of this to anyone. There was every chance that things could go horribly wrong if everyone everywhere learned of the possibilities of parallel world jaunting. So, on a vote of mum's the word, the entire group stood on the beach as the suns went down, enjoying a triple Earth sunset for the last time.

Rose stood off to one side talking with Martha. The two had become very close, and each realized how very lucky they were to have found a friend like the other.

"You sure about this, Martha? Your folks might worry." The other woman laughed.

"Oh, they will worry. No doubt. But I've got my phone," she gestured to her cell phone that the Doctor had so nicely jiggery-poked as he had Rose's long ago, "and I can call them and talk to them. Besides..." She broke off, glancing over to the water's edge where Jack watched over Ellie and Bastian as they collected interesting shells. "I can't leave him, not right now. I don't know what it is, but they're so important to me..." Rose simply nodded. She knew that feeling too.

"Well, then, take care of them, girl. He's a good man. One of the best. And those children are simply wonderful." Martha nodded.

"Are you sure you want us to watch Ellie? I mean, she is your daughter. Sorta." Rose smiled.

"Absolutely. She doesn't know yet, and she deserves a chance at a normal childhood with a normal family until she's old enough to understand where she comes from. Besides, she's Jack's daughter, regardless of who created her. I'm still not sure how the Doctor had a double, but he promised to explain it all to me once everything was cleaned up here." Martha grinned and hugged Rose.

"You take care of that bloke, Rose. He's always getting into trouble. Needs a firm hand to help him out once in a while." They simply hugged again, in perfect accord with one another, before rejoining the group.

"Well, it's time. Jack, Martha, kids - ready? The Doctor kissed Martha - and Jack, to Jackie's great shock - and ushered them all to Jack's car that they'd brought down the beach a ways. This way they would be inside the car when their world shifted back to itself, and they could simply start the engine and drive home. As Bastian opened Ellie's door, she broke free and launched herself at the Doctor's legs. He chuckled and picked her up.

"Right little monkey you are." He touched his finger to the end of her nose.

"You're gonna visit us." It wasn't a question.

"Course we are, right Rose?" Her heart was a melted puddle of goo watching them together, and she came over to hug the child herself.

"Absolutely. Now, be a good girl and don't give your Da or brother any troubles. And eat your vegetables!" The Doctor looked sideways at Rose, who shrugged. "Good advice." A final kiss from each of them and "their" daughter scampered back to her family.

"Everyone ready?" came the Doctor's chipper voice. A series of affirmatives answered him. "Right then. Off you go. We'll be over to visit in a month or so." Jack's family was firmly belted in when the Doctor sent the mental signal to the Tardis to begin the "uncoupling," as Mickey had termed it. Rose was tickled to see Martha reach over to Jack's hand where it rested on the steering wheel and squeeze his fingers lightly. The view began to shimmer, then to fade, and then the two moons shone on those remaining on the beach.

Rose walked over to her mum, taking Chase from Jackie's arms.

"Mum..." She didn't know what to say. But that was okay, too.

"I'm happy for you, Rose. So very happy." Jackie sniffled. "You just...be careful out there."

"I will, mum."

"And you -" Jackie pointed to the Doctor. He pointed to himself comically, a dopey questioning expression on his face. "Yes, you, Mister Time Lord. Get over here." One didn't argue with that voice. Not even the Oncoming Storm.

"Now, I know it's too much for you to ask that you give into Earthling tradition and make an honest woman out of my daughter, but that doesn't worry me 'cause I know my baby girl would hang you by the scruff if you so much as thought about doing her wrong. But Ellie was an absolute gem, so I expect to hear soon that you stopped shirking your duties to your race and the universe and have helped to create another grandbaby for me to dote on." Rose howled with laughter, gasping as tears of humor raced down her cheeks, while the Doctor - who had been trying to get a word in edgewise - sputtered and choked and had to cough repeatedly to catch his breath. Rose wondered why he was continually surprised with her Mum's bluntness. But this point had gone to Jackie, if his choking, red-faced expression was any indication. By the small smile Jackie shot to Rose when the Doctor was otherwise engaged in coughing, Rose knew the entire thing had been planned. Finally the Doctor had regained some semblance of normal breathing.

"Take pity on him, mum. He just recently learned he kinda has a kid - let him adjust to that before you demand more."

"Why?" Jackie's eyes twinkled with amusement. Rose turned to say her goodbyes to Pete and Mickey, and then she returned the baby to her mum as, with one more hug for everyone, they headed to the car they'd come to the beach in. Once everyone was securely buckled in, Rose and the Doctor stepped back.

"We'll see you in a few weeks!" shouted Rose.

"Counting on it!" came the reply from three voices. And then the car began to fade from view as Jack's had, and they were alone. Rose turned to the Doctor with a grin.

"I know you 'don't do domestic,' but I think Mum was serious," she said. The look in his eyes wiped out any mischief in her mind, replacing it with emotions much more primal, much more insistent.

"Well, then, we can't let her down, can we? Don't want to get slapped again, me." His voice was teasing - but his eyes were serious, and Rose felt herself get light-headed and a little breathless. Without another word he grasped her hand in his and they walked down the beach to the Tardis, the moon casting their shadows down the sand. Silent anticipation colored the air, only their footfalls and the soft whisper of the sea speaking in the night. They were almost to the Tardis when Rose chuckled.

"Penny for your thoughts?" the Doctor asked, cocking an eyebrow in that expression she found so charming.

"I just...these past months, I never dared hope for a happy ending."

"Oh, Rose -" He stopped walking, making her turn to face him. One finger went under her chin, gently tilting her eyes up to meet his.

"Whoever said 'happy' had to be an ending?" And right there on the beach, bathed in the light of the lone moon, Rose got the wish she'd dared not wish for.

"I love you, Rose Tyler. For all time." They kissed, and it was the kiss to inspire millions of lovers everywhere, past, present and future. A long moment later, he smiled gently at his mate.

"So, Rose, where to now?"

And he was right. Happy isn't always an ending.

Sometimes...

...just sometimes...

...it's a beginning.

-fin.

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Author's note:

Well, it's been a long trip, and a fun one. I've really enjoyed all the reviews and the comments, the questions and the laughter. It's made this so worthwhile! I never expected to get any sort of response from this - I was totally shocked at the sheer volume. You guys are the best, and I mean that in every way possible. Thank you so very much for accompanying me on this journey through time, space, and caterpillars. :-D

-Corianin


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